https://letterboxd.com/
The name of the game today is media consumption. Everywhere you go, you're bombarded with media of all sorts- television ads, radio jingles, news broadcasts, political tweets, and on and on and on. Not to mention the internet, which contains a near-infinite stream of videos, songs, photos, ideas, and just about anything else you could imagine. And our habits reinforce this: on average, internet users spend 6½ hours a day online. And this isn't a small subset of hardcore gamers or anything: we're talking about 4.4 billion internet users across the world spending more than 6 hours on the internet every day.
Even if you didn't realize how inundated we are by our media consumption habits, you'll likely agree that we live in an overwhelming era. The infinite amount of media and commodities at our fingertips is absurd. If someone recommends a film or series to you and you reply, "Sounds great, I'll have to add that one to the list," you're not alone. The fact that we all have backlogs of things-to-be-watched is kind of funny when you think about it. Though it can be stressful when you open up that iPhone notepad list on your phone and see how long the list stretches, it's not a terrible problem to have.
Many people find that a site like Letterboxd can bring some sense of orderliness to their lives. This site, which is similar to Goodreads, lets users discuss and discover new films, as well as keep track of the films they have already watched.
This review will explore the service Letterboxd in depth and see if it can help organize your film culture. I first became interested in it because of its ability to keep track of anything film-related. I hope to find out if this is truly the case, and whether or not there are any other ways it can be used.
How it Started
The letterboxd website was originally founded in beta mode in late 2011 at the Brooklyn Beta office. It quickly became a very successful private website and was later made public in early 2013. As membership has increased, letterboxd has had to adapt by introducing a tiered-membership structure where both free and premium subscriptions give users access to different features of the site.
How it Works
When you're dealing with a service that is both a film database and a communal discussion forum, it can be a bit daunting to figure out how the website works. Basically, it goes something like this: let's say you're thinking of watching a new movie and you want to see whether the online community gives it a thumbs up. Rather than deal with Rotten Tomatoes' ranking system (which divides audience ratings from critics?), you can head to Letterboxd and see what the community thinks of it. Letterboxd combines ratings from both big-name critics and everyday folks like me. For example, at this moment, Parasite boasts a 4.6 out of 5-star rating with thousands and thousands of reviews.
But keep scrolling, and you'll get a thorough education in all there is to know about the movie. After reading a short synopsis, you'll find a comprehensive "About" section, which includes the cast and crew list, details about production, and the genres the movie has been lumped into thus far. Beneath this, you'll find a mix of "recent reviews" and "popular reviews," the latter of which are often written by respected critics.
Then, we are met with one of Letterboxd's best features. Beneath the title's thumbnail at the top of the page, you'll see a small 'Where to Watch?' tab. This marvelous feature shows you exactly which streaming services and/or networks the film is currently available on, and whether or not you can rent or buy the film there. This feature is a result of a recent partnership with JustWatch. Rather than bounce between each of your streaming services manually, this feature allows you to get to watching without a moment wasted.
Anyway, once you have finished watching your film, you can save it and add it to your diary. Over time, you will accumulate a retrospective that you can return to at your leisure. In your diary, you will find the films you logged, the date you logged them on, and your rating and review (if you gave one). All these parameters can be made public or private. You can sort through them, too, using filters like "decade", "genre", or "rating". Personally, this is my favorite part of Letterboxd, as it helps me consolidate my thoughts.
Another fantastic feature of Letterboxd's consortium of features is its lists section. Here, users can group collections of films and share them with other users. These lists can be followed, shared, liked, etc. Because it's such a popular feature, users put a lot of work into cultivating their lists. As I browse now, some examples of lists are Anxiety-Induced Cinema; High Art Genre Movies; and A24 - Complete Filmography. Browse for a few minutes and you'll find half a dozen lists that will catch your interest and get you excited about seeing those new films.
So, in summary, what we have on Letterboxd is a website with features that cover all aspects of film watching. It has a community-based ranking system, a social media style comment and like platform, an IMDb-like database, and a collection of user-curated lists. It's hard to find anything on the website that isn't well thought out and designed.
Mobile Experience
I was apprehensive when I opened the Letterboxd website on my phone's Chrome browser for the first time. Being that the website is so comprehensive with its all-encompassing features, I imagined it would be difficult to implement this cleanly on mobile. But surprisingly, I was wrong, and for once, happy to be wrong. And the Letterboxd app, too, is clean as clean gets.
Despite having some downsides, there is nothing wrong with the app or the mobile web client. Logging films that you've just watched is easy, and navigating through Letterboxd's UI is intuitive as it is on a desktop client. It's truly impressive that the app and the mobile web client are so clutter-free.
Letterboxd Pro/Patron
As for Patron membership, it includes all the features of Pro membership with an added bonus of early access to new features and updates before they go live to the general public.
While Letterboxd is totally free to use, you do have the option to upgrade to a paid membership if you want more benefits. There are two tiers for paid members, the first of which is called Pro and the second, Patron. The Pro membership costs $19 yearly and provides users with several features such as year in review-style statistical breakdowns, more control over the activity feed's filters, and other numerical breakdowns like all-time stats. The Patron membership includes all of these features with an added bonus of early access to new features and updates before they go live to the general public.
Then there is the Patron membership, which costs a good chunk more than the Pro. For $49 a year, a Patron membership will grant you a slew of features that you probably don't need. This includes being granted early access to beta features, having your name "in lights" on the Letterboxd Patron page, and having a special insignia to signify your elite membership on your profile. Obviously, this is intended for folks who appreciate the work Letterboxd has done and want to give back by supporting the service with a monetary contribution.
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