Letterboxd is a fantastic website if you want to keep track of movies you’ve watched, read compelling reviews or build and share movie lists. And yet, Letterboxd also has a few flaws. Its website is incredibly slow, and there wasn’t any mobile app. The company is fixing one of these flaws by finally releasing an iPhone app.
Letterboxd is a sort of movie social network. Once you’ve created a profile, you can follow people and see what they’ve been watching. In particular, you can log watched movies, rate them and write short reviews — your followers can then see them in a unified feed. It’s like Twitter, but instead of posting messages for your followers, you post movie ratings and reviews. It’s also a great way to create a timeline of your most recently watched movies.
I’ve been using Letterboxd for more than a year now, and I’ve really enjoyed the movie pages. For instance, if you look at Mustang (which is my favorite movie of 2015 — seriously, if you haven’t seen it stop reading this right now and watch it), it’s an information-packed page. You get a repartition of ratings to see if it’s a polarizing movie, popular and recent reviews, a short description, clickable cast and crew names, a link to IMDb and more.
The user reviews have been more interesting than most user reviews on other websites. And anyone can create lists on any theme. For instance, there’s a list for “100 great movies under 100 minutes,” “childhood trauma revisited” or “incomplete list of movies that use the Pixies’ ‘Where Is My Mind?’ to express the mental state of a character whose grip on reality is beginning to deteriorate.” There’s a sense of community on Letterboxd, with its own personality.
And if you’re like me and don’t really follow anyone on the service, it’s still a great place to keep track of your movie collection and find new films to watch. I log everything I watch, use the watch list feature and look up movies all the time.
While the website is responsive and works on mobile, the new app could be a better way to log new movies. And it looks like you’ll be able to find all the website features in the app.
Existing Letterboxd users will feel right at home as the app uses the same color palette, icons and metaphors as the website. And if you’re new to the service, it could be a good way to sign up and try it.
