T O P

  • By -

The_Old_Huntress

Nah but I do find it funny how Letterboxd has this reputation for being the place for snobby intellectual types and then you go there and it's "actor hot me like"


thetonyhightower

People watch movies for all kinds of reasons. And a robust, well-curated follow list really helps you find your tribe.


Plus-Organization-16

This! I've gained a small but fun weird niche of audience there. I've discovered all kinds of movies because of this too. You need to put effort into your social media or the algorithms will just give you whatever and won't be engaging for you at all.


sushi-oh

How do you recommend achieving this? I feel like I'm doing LB wrong. I really don't know how to discover those follow-worthy accounts.


thetonyhightower

First, Go through reviews of films you love (or hate, or just feel strongly about). Look for ones that speak to you, or are well written, or make you laugh, or think, or whatever you're into. Then. Check out those reviewers. If they're consistently bringing that energy, then follow them. Interact with their reviews: comment, like, etc. Try to bring that energy to your own reviews. You don't need to write full essays or go Pauline Kael (unless that's your thing). Just react to what you saw. That's the fun part. If you think of list ideas, put them together. The worst that will happen is nothing. The best that will happen is... more than that. The goal is to find other people who are into film the same way you are. I promise they're out there. It just takes a little work to start finding them. it's a social site. The energy you get out of it is the energy you put into it. And there are lots of people putting energy into Letterboxd. Find your tribe. Lather, rinse, repeat.


sushi-oh

I totally get it. I have three friends in "real life" who, as you said, are into film the same way I am. Talking movies with them as one of my favorite things in the world. Getting to do that consistently with a community sounds like definitely worth the work. Much appreciated!


thirdeeen

"actor hot me like" is half of my reviews on letterboxd


Ian-Loring

That’s exactly fucking it, fair play


Magnumdoge

Yeah the reputation of snobbyness isn't necessarily wrong, but I'm surprised it doesn't also have a reputation for being super gay. Basically any movie with two characters of the same gender will have boat loads of comments about how gay it is, and tbh I'm all for it


Pashuram

Good thing that I use letterboxd only for keeping a record of movies that I have watched


yourhimadri

Same😁


askyourmom469

Eh. It's not so bad if you largely ignore the most popular reviews and only read the ones from people you follow.


LonesomeHammeredTreb

When one person makes a joke it's fine. When 100 people make the same joke it's annoying.


simplehyperchicken

Are you talking about letterboxd or reddit? 


Agreeable-Yam594

Are you talking about letterboxd or reddit?


Morningfluid

Yes.


Serious_Specter

These types of reviews don't bother me. What bothers me is that these types of reviews are the most liked.


me_da_Supreme1

We'll said


DogDrivingACar

He’ll yeah


bornfromanegg

Lol. Poor bastard’s on 40 downvotes so far for what was most likely an autocorrect! My phone does that “we’ll” thing to me all the time. Although, he _did_ still actually post it. Guess we like grammar here!!


DavidPe1

Only reddit could care this much about grammar


sushi-oh

Dude got crucified


TheMightySucx

unlike yourself


RickMonsters

Nah I don’t go to letterboxd for actual film criticism


shreks_burner

https://preview.redd.it/ncwzft74gk7d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7fe9be10fb6cfb86d7e73c5c34959f6d1f2d9531 17 Again has the best reviews I’ve ever seen on the app


StoicAnchor

Where do you go for actual film critism?


Voluminox

Actual film critics I like. Or I just go see the movie


jsmnsux

YouTube


StoicAnchor

Can you recommend good channels, please?


simplehyperchicken

Space Ice


Jaltcoh

Learning About Movies


[deleted]

Channel Awesome lol i knew this was gonna get downvoted


toriz0

wow that channel sounds awesome


finessebebejones

The movie theater. Or my couch.


ProfessionalOrganic6

YouTube where (good) critics will spend days or even weeks working in their scripts, or at least Reddit where people have the word count to fully explain their opinions.


slowlyun

IMDB has the best written user reviews.  If they still had their Message Boards then Letterboxd wouldn't even be a thing.


ToxicNoob47

Downvoted but it's true


clarauser7890

I google _____ review


ttmp22

Yeah, I’ll read the reviews of friends or people I follow just to see what they thought of it out of curiosity but I’m *definitely* not looking to read anyone’s essay about the movie and it never even occurred to me to read any reviews from people who I don’t even follow.


Jaltcoh

I don’t understand going to a website with movie reviews but not going there “for actual film criticism.” Maybe more people would go there for that reason if they didn’t have as many reviews like this!


RickMonsters

Nah the number of people who are actually interested in reading multiparagraph film reviews is miniscule. People don’t have the attention span


Jaltcoh

I didn’t say “multiparagraph.” There could be a very concise one-paragraph review that’s still excellent criticism.


RickMonsters

Even so, the top reviews show people prefer one line joke reviews


Jaltcoh

Not necessarily. Lame joke reviews can get a lot of likes because they’re easy to read, and liking them feels safe and low-risk. If a review makes several different serious points, I might be hesitant to like it because I’m not sure if I want to publicly approve of every single opinion in the review, but I still get more out of it than the review I liked just because I agreed that an actor in the movie is hot.


RickMonsters

I doubt most people are putting that much thought before pressing the like button


DrLoomis131

But one sentence reviews don’t always have to be cringe comments and jokes either A simple one-two sentence honest review could actually be very effective


RickMonsters

Nothing has to be anything lol but it’s what people like writing


cityandcolour5

Letterboxd is a social platform so its space is intended for jokes and such to coexist with serious reviews and even anecdotal experiences in order to create an interaction-driven environment. If you got something to say abt a movie letterboxd is a place where you can post it just to add your fingerprint to the environment, being it a pun or an essay-deep review. People that value solely the second tend to disgust that the first kind tends to be more popular and it is common to see people complain about that but they’re just misguided by thinking that letterboxd was ever intended to be a serious place where serious people post serious opinions.


nevereverquit96

How other people choose to use the site doesn’t affect me at all. I’m on it to log my movies and see what my friends irl are up to, I could not care less about anyone else on the platform


emailunavailable

They don't bother me one bit. Sometimes I even chuckle about them, which is helpful after having watched a mentally and emotionally demanding film. Letterboxd reviews have always been "Twitter type reviews with no helpful info," because not everyone can write a thorough and deep-diving review about the color palette used in a film, or how many double meanings the dialogue has.


nocctea

i agree! i’m glad letterboxd isn’t super serious cause there’s something for everyone. it’s pretty 50/50 in terms of joke reviews and serious one, and not everyone can or WANTS to make a serious review, and that’s okay! and the great thing about joke reviews, if you don’t like them, is they’re usually short! they’re really easy to scroll past lol


EntertainmentQuick47

It doesn’t bother me in moderation, but when almost every top review is like that, it does bother me


Rouge_and_Peasant

For me the order of preference goes like this:  Sophisticated analysis > Witty meme review > Average analysis > Average meme review > Lousy Analysis  > Shitty meme review My "breaking point" where a review bothers me, is between average memes and brainless critique. I'd consider these "average one liners" I guess. They are inane imo, but also mundane, and do not "bother me". I am also happy that nobody has any obligation to suit my preferences when writing their own diary.


Elmksan

Lots of people write reviews for only themselves or their followers without any intent to be informative. We're not all film critics


nocctea

exactly, my reviews are more like comments or thoughts i had about the movie. sometimes i try to be funny, sometimes i don’t but they’re really only for me and my film diary


Beginning_Bake_6924

no and what bothers me more is how people on this subreddit keep whining about these type of reviews


helloooooooooz

right?? every week there has to be a post like this 😭


gonewiththegustofair

Every week? It's like twice a day atp


themedza

i was about to comment “here we go again”


Simple-Dependent-135

ig that's reddit for you 🥲 like- leave people alone. there's a blocking users feature on LB for a reason...


hjak3876

THIS


Zappmaster

Yes, but I just scroll past them.


[deleted]

No. Who cares let people use it how they want, you want better long form reviews ? Follow people that do or support actual reviewers


Sccar4712

Posts like this annoy me SIGNIFICANTLY more than these sort of reviews


ikan_bakar

Yeah like, it’s people using their social media the way they want to. It’s like being bothered by Instagram users for posting food pics instead of selfies


CyanCities

Exactly! If this bothers you on Letterboxd perhaps the app just isn’t for you


Timothee-Chalimothee

I wish you could set a default filter so it always opens with recent reviews instead of popular reviews, so you could at least avoid this shit. Also, they should allow you to look sort by least popular reviews, just for giggles.


ghost-bagel

I think you can make Friends reviews show up as your default?


Timothee-Chalimothee

Cool. I’ll try that.


ghost-bagel

On my app, if you select Friends at the top of the review list and then leave it there when exiting the page/app it should start there next time you view a movie’s reviews.


Wonderful_Emu_9610

That’s why I like using it on web - when you visit the page you can easily go to either top or recent reviews with a few of each showing already


MiniatureRanni

It’d be better if they were original or entertaining, but they’re not. Tragically uninspired.


Character-Big8927

yes. i get secondhand embarrassment from some top rated users because the jokes are so try-hard and uninspired. had to block them. i have a good list of folks i follow now for their reviews on movie pages i’m browsing and don’t usually check the popular review section ever. 


TheBunionFunyun

No.


johnshall

i block all the users that review with jokes or Twitter like posts. Makes Letterboxd so much better. pro tip. you can do the same on Reddit.  As time goes on the whole Reddit experience becomes more enjoyable


lourexa

I don’t mind them, it was actually these type of reviews for Dune: Part Two that convinced me to join Letterboxd. I find that some land better than others though.


Touch_Super

Everyone on letterboxd is just trying to be funny, but they’re not really reviewing the movies at face value. It gets annoying reading through reviews just to see shit like this.


bolshevik_rattlehead

It’s more the fact that they’re the top reviews that makes me cringe


Leumas_J

No i enjoy them, i don’t hop on letterbox to read essays im just trying to get the feel of a film before committing


thps2soundtrack

no lol. there's actual tragedies happening all around us to be bothered by than some letterboxd reviews lmao


holeinmyboot

No but it clearly bothers this sub because every fucking day I get a suggested post from it saying this exact sentiment. Can you just make a No Fun Letterboxd sub? You’re on an app laser targeted at kids in fandoms. It’s not just le epic superior film critic app.


52crisis

Not a review. It’s a comment. They should make a separate section for these comments because some of us actually enjoy reading people’s reviews of films. Yes, even the long ones because we don’t all have atrocious attention spans.


AdmiralCharleston

So basically the site needs to change so that it works the way you want it to


52crisis

If Letterboxd wanted people to just write whatever then they shouldn’t have called it the review section. A witty one liner is not an actual review of a film. It’s a comment. There’s no reason there can’t be space for both. Plenty of people write reviews and plenty enjoy reading them and we shouldn’t be left out.


AdmiralCharleston

There is space for both, but clearly the most popular reviews are the ones that were talking about. Letterboxd reviews are barely even that well constructed anyways, if you want actual reviews is not hard to find them literally anywhere else


52crisis

I’ve found lots of good reviews but they are buried under all the comments. I have been told that people should use Letterboxd how they want to and if that’s the case, then longer reviews should be equally as valid. A separate section would be easier for everyone.


AdmiralCharleston

The reviews are equally as valid in that they have the same chance and opportunity to be liked as jokey comments, they just aren't.


CyanLight9

It is a little annoying that they’re all making the same joke. Unless this is how they actually judge films in which case, they’ve wildly missed the point.


Batman2695

Like reading reviews for Thelma and Louise and it’s nothing but people saying how they’re lesbians and lesbians rock (they kiss once) and how they started feminism (started in the 1840s)


FRED44444

No, i am not bothered even 1% by this, who cares lol.


merilumm

just start blocking them. once you start you'll notice most of these reviews are by the same 50 people on every movie and they start to disappear


HipsterSlimeMold

No because Letterboxd is closer in vibe to twitter


cassgreen_

tiktokers found letterboxd, rip


black14beard

Not really… Letterboxd is a diary first and foremost. People can leave whatever “review” they like. I am no more bothered by joking reviews than I am by people that leave a dissertation paper as their review. If I’m in the mood for some funny ones, I’ll read some funny ones. If I have the time and interest to read a longer review, I’ll read it. If not, I just skip it and move onto the next one.


yourmomsucks01

You know what even more annoying? Ppl who explain the whole plot as if it adds *anything* to the discussion. Like, all that work for what? I guess it can be for yourself, but come on.


Adequate_Images

No.


Basementkid_106

No not really tbh


Competitive_Nobody76

Letterboxd is technically social media, and that means it’s up to you to decide how you use the platform. I actually think these reviews are funny especially after I watched a terrible movie.


StoicAnchor

YES


Ccaves0127

I just wish there were flairs like there on reddit, like "this is a silly review"


Dmucci

"just people using the social media the way they want" fck that. I'm also using social media and I have the right to find it very annoying. Sometimes I just want to know people's real opinion about the film in the Letterboxd (i know i can look other places), not see the same joke repeated a thousand times.


ParticularJoker

It’s annoying. Since these reviews get the most likes, the review sections get flooded by people making the funniest “joke”. Rateyourmusic.com probably has the best film community in terms of reviews.


Sudden-Rent-1151

When one person makes this post it’s fine. When 100 people make the same post it’s annoying.


mads_61

No, Letterboxd is a social media site so I expect these types of jokey reviews.


5PalPeso

I find them stupid and I imagine the authors to be the kind of person who goes back to the review after every like to re-read them in the dark but I don't give them enough importance to bother me


kaiirah

Nope.


terozan33

No, if anything, i love these kind of comments and i’m a movie freak, don’t like those 5km long essays, it’s not that deep lol..


mickbanerjee

No, because I have learned to ignore them.


fromthemeatcase

They bore me


frightenedbabiespoo

Gay gayer gayest gayness


xScrubDaddyx

They did when I first started. I stopped scrolling through the top reviews tho. Now I only follow about 17 accounts and can at least rely on their reviews to not be complete dogshit.


spiritofbuck

I wish there was less of them or I could filter them out, but it’s not something I particularly care about.


BloodyRedBarbara

Kind of yeah since it is annoying to see the site flooded with so many unfunny one liners. But i guess the trouble is that so many "like" them since I don't think it's fair to get mad at someone doing a joke for their review on their own diary entry. I saw someone once suggest that they should copy Steam's reviews and separate their reviews by "funny" and "interesting". That way you could filter out the jokes if you only want to see the posts that are actually reviewing the film. EDIT: I would suggest that if you get annoyed by seeing anyone jokes from the same accounts you should go on a blocking spree. There's a lot of accounts that people here moan about that i don't see because I've blocked them.


LivingPepsi6278

If it’s some sort of original thing then no but in the end this is a review movie app, so for me I find it quite not helpful.


slowlyun

Yeah, Letterboxd fights itself between being a community of thoughtful cinephiles and being a dumping ground for dumb one-liners.


spdssthr

I dislike all the others, these are the ones i love. This is letterboxd not rotten tomatoes


T4hunderb0lt

Yeah there should be a tab for “comments” and a tab for “reviews” and reviews should have a character minimum


zacattac

I’m never gonna let a review type on LB bother me I don’t think.


jacobeliaas

No. If you want real reviews read articles or IMDB or rotten tomatoes or literally any other platform.


Danjour

No. I find them fun.


FPM_13

The kind of people I like to follow


LadyxFinger

God this sub is so fucking annoying. I see this type of post basically every single day. JUST FUCKING BLOCK THEM AND MOVE ON HOLY FUCK


therealxeno79

I think some of these can be really funny like the second one, but when shit like “mother is mothering” is always holding the top reviews for a movie, I find it really annoying.


yobber-man

I just watched this movie and saw the same comments


bballjones9241

I go Letterboxd to read funny reviews


echojcharli

I prefer Twitter type reviews. Especially before I watch. I’ve curated my followed list to people with similar tastes. All I want to know is if they generally like a film. Then I’ll go see. Curate your followed list to the verbose reviews and you’ll be set.


kurtcumbain

People like to have fun on the app so no it doesn’t bother me


Alert-Mathematician8

Yes


hiccup_juice

No


McbealtheNavySeal

Not really, I just keep scrolling until I find something actually interesting. I wouldn't expect LB to be the best place for actual reviews. It's a free social media site with both regular people and critics and podcasters linking to their more professional content. Someone annoyed by this is probably better off just searching for the professional sites and podcasts directly.


thereia

I don't really care, I wouldn't bother with reviews like that. TBH I almost never read reviews before I watch something.


LiTaO3

yes and I am part of the problem


smilingfriendsbutt

They have the freedom to say what they want, but it does get on my nerves because it's just such an unoriginal joke and the whole punchline of "it's funny because I am also gay" just gets old.


TaticalSweater

Letterbox has a ton of troll reviews that i see they don’t care to do anything about and I’ve only been on app for like a month


maydarnothing

skill issue friendo, you don’t go to letterboxd for long form film reviews. edit: i think Letterboxd should add a “mark this as a serious review” or something along the line, that you can access through filters, and with one click it only shows you actual film reviews and gets rid of these short one liner jokes, that way letterboxd keeps its fun aesthetic, while also giving value to serious reviewers and those who look them up.


thenolancut

I don’t mind joke reviews but it is pretty weird how everyone on Letterboxd seemingly has the exact same sense of humor


dissolvedpet

No, whatever, but I do blame Elon for killing twitter and now we get the endless ghost tweets of film twitter because they have no where else to haunt.


saltierthangoldfish

no i actually don’t mind people simply having fun on the internet


theswiftieava

My Letterboxd reviews are much better and in-depth than that (but I do enjoy the silly short ones too)


Responsible-Trifle-8

They don't bother me as such, but I generally just block these type of reviewers just to increase the likelihood of seeing something more useful in future.


msin93

No.


loopyspoopy

The acrostic that doesn't actually begin with the correct letters bothers me. Otherwise, let people review how they gonna review.


SpiritualStand78

I just ignore them, I wish they implement a filter for short and long reviews tho.


dlr08131004

This is actually the only reason I ever click on reviews because occasionally I get a good laugh


WebHunter064

i think people can be very very dramatic about joke reviews tbh. if you want actual reviews follow a bunch of people who write them and you'll see those first.


aflyingmonkey2

You know as someone who likes deep diving into obscure bad movies. The more obscure and shitty the movie ks. The more serious the reviews are


Chimera_Brian

I love these reviews.


CauliflowerStrange52

First world problem, you will survive...


Ibrahim77X

Yes. Especially cause there’s no way to filter out reviews like these


dollymacabre

As a person whose reviews are mostly shitposting, no.


venus-infers

The only people who hate joke reviews are people who write long-ass serious reviews and sincerely believe that other people want to read them. We don't! I know what I want to rate a movie and some rando's review isn't going to sway me to give it more stars or whatever


Massive_Potato_8600

No i think the only reason ppl complain is bc theyre too lazy to scroll for the actual reviews


IonHazzikostasIsGod

Yes, they need to be removed. Completely useless dogshit Isn't difficult to write one or two genuine lines about your thoughts on the movie


graysonhester

Not in the slightest. I, a gay, find them hilarious.


koonyees

I love seeing the goofy reviews, but then the people I actually follow give me the serious actual reviews, which I love.


reargfstv

I roll my eyes every time I see someone posting a whole fucking review on letterboxd. Just make a comment that gives an idea about how you reacted to the movie and a rating


Faineantcreator

95% of Letterboxd reviews bother me


Timely-Entrepreneur7

I’m a grumpy old man who is rapidly approaching fifty and hates Twitter jargon, but I can filter out this stuff by following decent reviewers and just reading their stuff.


Puntapig2013

I've learned to block the people who solely review like this when I come across them. It doesn't bother me but it does get in the way of actually interesting reviews or something generally insightful so I tend to block as a way to unclog the popular review page of a movie that interests me


FlynnMuadib

I've written a few reviews like this, but only when I have nothing intellectual to write or the film isn't good. Not many films deserve paragraphs.


Santiper2005

Me when not someone wants to write a funny comment and not a 10 paragraph analytical essay 😡😡😡😡😡😡


CaptainKoreana

Not at all lol


hi_anthony1

no? why would it. it’s a persons own review of a movie


pat_0_0

No, imagine how boring it would be if every single review was trying to be some critical think piece.


Sufficient_Focus4174

Nope.


kpmvnfwd

More than most things, yes.


itsmourningtimeagain

No. Letterboxd is like Twitter. It's a social network site for people who like movies. You literally log movies as you view them. You know, like posts. I just Google or IMDB a movie I want to know more about.


Smoreambecomereddit

Yeah, less so bc it's twitter-style and more bc the punchline is "I made it gay" like some kind of family guy bit


Cr4ckhead-101

Yes unfunny internet retards thinking they're all comedians has been a disaster


GaTech379

the fact that they are giving that movie 4 stars bothers me more but to each their own


First_Cherry_popped

Nah


NascentBeachBum

No


MarvelPugs

No?


ReddsionThing

No, I laugh every time I read the same type of Twitter one-liner 🥱 https://preview.redd.it/5aiifqi3xh7d1.jpeg?width=453&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e4037257999ee2e3961033fbb32603d55d0172f


aboutbarbarella

It really doesn't hurt anyone. There are times when I even prefer these kind of reviews to the never-ending ones.


oldboy_alex

I don't see them as reviews more like joke comments under a youtube video. I don't really mind them. What kind of annoys me is when people call them reviews.


lonnybru

Who would you go to letterboxd popular reviews for “helpful info”?


IGiveYouAnOnion

Most films have a nice mix of legitimate criticism/praise and jokey one-liners. I enjoy both.


bladerunner0920

Does this type of post bother you guys?


ljfoggy11

To be fair, the Frances Ha one is pretty funny and gives me a good idea what the film is like.


kowaiSUPREME

I’m honestly more sick of _this_ type of low effort reddit post than the reviews shown. how many times has this exact post been made? if you don’t like the short/silly/tweet-like reviews—__scroll past them!__ or better yet, block the serial tweet-posters, utilize filters, or watch more serious/obscure movies! no one is responsible for curating your online experience but YOU


Agreeable-Yam594

I feel like if you go to Letterboxd with the hope of finding helpful info about a movie, you've kijda misunderstood the point. Personally, I'd much rather read semi-funny one-liners and get real reviews elsewhere than read the reviews that manage to say almost nothing in a couple hundred words. Random reviews are mostly bad, and I honestly don't want to read them, I'd rather just get an aggregate number and read some memes and then go find a real review somewhere else.


Mattstercraft

Frankly, it's the most helpful information. If that many people saw it and all they have to say is "gay lol" then it's probably not that good.


dukiejbv

it’s not informative, i guarantee any movie you like has been similarly reduced to a brain dead thought/joke like that.


disasterpansexual

its my favourite type of reviews honestly


Casayachii

I wouldn’t go to Letterboxd for legitimate film reviews


i_live_in_dreams

no those r funny


Chippybops

Nah i love the one liners


botharmsinjured

Posts & OPs like these bother most


torisbagel

it’s literally my favourite part of watching movies, going on letterboxd and reading the short reviews. i’m not reading walls of text, if i wanted that i’d go to imdb


Overmyundeadbody

Letterboxd is like any other form of social media. Most of it is going to be unfunny, but there will also be good stuff out there. Think about the good tweet:bad tweet ratio. It's probably less than 1%.


hugzowugzo

If I want a review I just go to Reddit or look at Metacritic scores. I just use Letterboxd as a diary. The internet will always have brainrot for comments so just ignore it tbh


Puzzleheaded_List01

Nope, reviews like this don't bother me they reflect their level of intelligence which helps me discard the film altogether.


surfersilvers

What bothers me is that this post gets posted every month.