Letterboxd - Proof that not everyone can be a film critic.

  • ⚙️ Performance issue identified and being addressed.
  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Not Jewish Wario

Not Jewish Wario

kiwifarms.net
Joined
May 13, 2021
Letterboxd.png ​

To shortly describe Letterboxd, I would call it “twitter for films” (though some prefer comparing it to tumblr). Letterboxd is a place where anyone can write and share their opinions or reviews on any film. You can also rate films on a half - 5 star scale, make lists of your favorite films, and like and comment on other users reviews (provided they don't delete your comment). The Letterboxd site continues to grow every year, attracting more internet famous users like YouTubers, professional film critics, and even a few notable film directors like Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Red Rocket).

You may already guess that an autistic hobby like reviewing movies is going to attract a certain community. These suspicions are confirmed once you edit your profile and stumble across this…

Letterboxd_Pronouns.png

Letterboxd is full of interesting characters and the site caters to them, making it the site one big hivemind. Here are some of the dumb things you can find on Letterboxd.

Everyone’s Trying to be a Comedian or Spot the Reference
Tyler’s Nope Review (Archive)
Tylers_Nope_Review.png

When looking up reviews for certain films, you hope people will give insight on stuff like the writing, acting, cinematography, or anything to do with the film. Sadly, many of the top reviews are people making mostly unfunny jokes that give no insight to the movie. It’s all for the sake of internet points and it’s very annoying. Say for example, you want to look at reviews for Bullet Train to see if it’s worth watching in theatres. You scroll through the popular reviews, and you can find many users making the exact same joke over and over again.

Sophie's Thomas Joke (Archive)
Sophie_Thomas.png

Bryan Espitia Thomas Joke (Archive)
Bryan_Espitia_Thomas.png

Fabiro Thomas Joke (Archive)
Fabiro_Thomas.png

It doesn’t help when outlets praise these kinds of jokes.

Bullet Train: The 10 Funniest Letterboxd Reviews (Archive)

Hornyposting and Simping
At least you can maybe find a clever joke once in a while, but every horny review just reads the same. Most don’t even try to disguise it as comedy.

the film drunk review (Archive)
the_film_drunk_horny_review.png

mae review (Archive)
mae_horny_review.png

othavio review (Archive)
othavio_horny_review.png

Politisperging when it’s not Necessary
There are plenty of films with political themes and messages, which can also be discussed in reviews and discussions about the film. However, many users subscribe to the matra that everything is political, and stuff that doesn’t have an overt message upholds the status quo. This also opens the door for users to make political messages and events about themselves through sharing their power-levels when nobody asked, or ebegging.

Sally Jane Black Jingle All the Way (Archive)
Sally_Jane_Black_JATW.png

BRAT Don't Look Up (Archive)
Brat_Dont_Look_Up.png

Going through any films with problematic people involved is also a big mess.

Owen Harry Potter (Archive)
Owen_JK_Rowling.png

Dissenting Opinions, Go Away
Debate in comments of Owen's Harry Potter Review
Rowling_1.png
Rowling_2.png

Of course, politisperging only goes one way on Letterboxd. Right wing sperging often gets suppressed or banned from Letterboxd.

Letterboxd Inexplicably Bans Black Libertarian Film Critic Jacob Smith and His Society Reviews Account (Archive)

This also extends to films like Matt Walsh's What is a Woman? having it's reviews hidden to protect anyone from possibly seeing wrongthink.

What is a Woman? (Archive)
1661208137173.png

Other Things.
Letterboxd can often be cluttered with films that are not actually films. Unreleased films, TV series, YouTube videos, and other random shit can be found since Letterboxd just borrows from The Movie Database (TMDB).

YMS' Kimba YouTube review counts as a film? (Archive)
YMS_Kimba_Letterboxd.png

Some reviews are just lines from the movie.

Lucy's Whiplash Review (Archive)
Lucy_Whiplash_Review.png

Although, I don’t want this thread to be cluttered with people mad that someone likes or doesn’t like a particular film, there are some reviews that are just outright bad.

Joao's Joker Review (Archive)
Joao_Joker.png

Conclusion
Letterboxd could be a great place to talk about and share the films you like with others, but it’s anchored down by a twitter-like userbase and site admins making terrible decisions to cater to them.

Links and Archives
Letterboxd (Archive)
Wikipedia Page (Archive)
Official Twitter Account (Archive)
Official Facebook Account
Official Instagram Account
 
Last edited:
Another thing you will see a lot of Letterboxd: using a single line from the film as a "review".

Annoying types of users on Letterboxd: people who are so beligerent, defensive and aggressive, they will use the mere fact of you liking a single one of their reviews as an excuse to go through your entire reviewing history to find the one review they vehemently disagree with so they can attack you over that (geez, thanks asshole, all I did is like your review...). Another annoyance is people (not filmmakers themselves, just stans) who obsessively monitor the pages of their favourite films so they can attack anyone who posts a negative review. There's also deceptive filmmakers who use Letterboxd just for search engine optimization and will have people post fake reviews and ratings for their films. There is no way to report this activity to Letterboxd even when you can prove that the accounts associated with those reviews are very obviously fake and created just for SEO (like: the accounts were all created around the same time, they have a very limited number of films logged with a few perfunctory reviews, etc).
 
I like using Letterboxd as a way of keeping track of all the movies I want to see, but will get around to watching them eventually™. And for finding list of things I might like but have not seen yet. Everything else about the site is awful, all the users are so comically in the leftwing bubble that as someone who doesn't give a shit about politics it makes reading reviews impossible because of the politsperging/hornyposting/retarded jokes as outlined by the OP.

There are also certain powerusers that farm le upboats with dumb joke reviews like BrattPitt or TonyTheTerror that also make reviews just not worth liking at.
 
My favorite letterboxd review will always be the one tranny who had such a huge mental breakdown over bone tomahawk that they quit the entire site forever.


Also Fuck Bratt Pitt that snarky art hoe
 
I feel like the examples in the OP could be found on any site that allows user reviews like Metacritic, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, etc. Why is this site special? Is there something I'm missing? This thread could just be "bad movie review takes".
 
Another politisperging example is the page for What is A Woman. They removed any review expressing criticism of the trans movement, while most reviews were just piling on 1-star for their ideological opposition to the film. Now, they now aren't even showing reviews for it, I assume because too many were positive and too many reviewers were committing wrongthink.
1661206171782.png
Due to a high volume of moderation traffic, reviews for this title are hidden at this time. Reviews remain visible on members’ profiles, with the exception of those removed for violating our Community Policy.
Click to expand...

I had to mute/block some particularly popular users whose reviews were often featured because they made me irrationally MATI. In particular, that dumb bitch Lucy with her annoying twee reviews and female soyface energy.
1661206897091.png 1661206906959.png 1661206917749.png
I couldn't find any examples that truly justified my hatred, but she's a featured review on just about every movie with nothing of substance to say.

the site is definitely useful for looking up and logging movies, but the ratings and reviews are always biased toward the indie film lib audience it attracts
 
Wish Letterboxd would add support for TV shows instead of movies. Also letting you write reviews without needing a score.
Or just remove reviews all together because every single one of them reeks of Reddit top comment energy.
 
John Sneed said:
I feel like the examples in the OP could be found on any site that allows user reviews like Metacritic, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, etc. Why is this site special? Is there something I'm missing? This thread could just be "bad movie review takes".
Click to expand...
Letterboxd is different in the sense that it acts like a social media site for films. The user ratings on RT, Metacritic, and Imdb are mostly full of bots and fanboys leaving ratings to try and affect the score. They are more meant to be like comments than full reviews.

Users on Letterboxd tend to have a face to the review, which gives some a sense of "Internet Fame". This allows them to get away with stuff like using Don't Look Up's page as a place to share their MeToo story.
 
Last edited:
Looks like Letterboxd has the toxicity of Twitter combined with the autism of Quora. I'm not even a film buff but I can see how this'd make one heck of a CW thread. Nice one, OP.
 
The only good thing about this was Uwe Boll (yes, that Uwe Boll) was on the same site before (unfortunately) getting banned:


1661222729967.png
1661222747053.png
1661222788181.png
1661222817216.png
 
Letterboxd, RateYourMusic and MyAnimeList are just some examples as to be mere proof that when real and bought/paid for critics refuse to do their jobs correctly, you get stuff like what you’re seeing,

I was even thinking about signing up for Letterboxd, since I would much rather have these kinds of trolls tell me what they think of this movie that I want to watch, whether they’re trying too hard to be a troll or a contrarian.
 
I use Letterboxd to track my watched movies and plan out what I want to watch, I will purposefully go offsite to read reviews if I am unsure of a film, because god knows I'm not getting anything helpful there.
 
Even though Letterboxd probably has more concentrated autism than Twitter, at least it serves a function if you ignore the social media aspect. I love collecting cringeworthy Letterboxd reviews so heres some for the new Top Gun, the 60s Ocean's Eleven and The Sound of Music.
topgun.png oceans11.png
SoundOfMusic.png
 
Last edited:
Look up reviews for "problematic" movies like Gone With the Wind. Lots of tryhards getting their correct opinions in.

albert the programmer said:
Letterboxd, RateYourMusic and MyAnimeList are just some examples as to be mere proof that when real and bought/paid for critics refuse to do their jobs correctly, you get stuff like what you’re seeing,

I was even thinking about signing up for Letterboxd, since I would much rather have these kinds of trolls tell me what they think of this movie that I want to watch, whether they’re trying too hard to be a troll or a contrarian.
Click to expand...
I've thought about creating an account where I'd review foreign films in the most hood way possible. Like "my nigga yang hit dat shit hard smoke get in yr eyes fr reel."
 
As a source of movie info and viewing options, it’s 100% the best. But I’d never read a review there. It’s invaluable for me as a physical media collector, but the reviews are hot garbage SJW faggotry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom