Between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m, Monday through Friday, Seth Turek is focused. He works all day at Qualtrics, the famous software company in Utah, and the grind is real.
But when the clock strikes 5:01 p.m., he transforms into a film critic. Only it’s not in the traditional way. Turek — who has penned over 1,000 reviews since he began writing them in 2017 — doesn’t write reviews as a second occupation, though. His words aren’t printed in any local magazines or for the Deseret News. And the movies he reviews usually aren’t new.
All of Turek’s reviews are available to read online, not on a blog, but rather on an up-and-coming social media site called Letterboxd.
He’s not alone either. According to The New York Times, Turek is one of over 3 million people actively using Letterboxd, and that number is growing. In January, the Times reported that Letterboxd’s user base had nearly doubled since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Compared to the thousands of other posts that Letterboxd users publish on the site every day, Turek’s 1,000 reviews are a raindrop in an ocean.
But what is Letterboxd? And what does it tell us about the future of reviews and film criticism?
What Letterboxd is
Some might consider Letterboxd to be a site where amateur movie critics post their reviews, but that doesn’t paint the full picture. On its own FAQ page, Letterboxd defines itself as “a global social network for grassroots film discussion and discovery.”
Put differently, Letterboxd is a social media site for people who love movies, and you don’t need to be a full-fledged film critic to use it. The site values both discussion and discovery equally.
The mantra on Letterboxd’s homepage reads:
“Track films you’ve watched. Save those you want to see. Tell your friends what’s good.”
While Turek, the die-hard cinephile that he is, mainly uses Letterboxd for that third sentence, there are thousands of people who use the site for the first two sentences — they track what they watch and bookmark movies to see later.
Letterboxd has been offering these services since 2011, but its popularity snowballed in 2020 as the the pandemic confined us in our homes, the Times reports.
How Letterboxd works
Rachel Wagner, a member of the Utah Film Critics Association, aptly compares Letterboxd to the popular online book review service Goodreads.
Similar to Goodreads, Letterboxd members have their own personalized profiles that showcase their favorite movies and display recent activity.
Here’s what Wagner’s profile looks like:
Like other social media sites, Letterboxd profile pages feature a space for avatars and bios.
On this page, members can access a series of tools. Users can search for certain movies, make a diary entry, write a review, create a list, add titles to a watchlist and so on.
While Turek mainly uses his account to post reviews, Wagner uses hers to make movie lists. As of Jan. 22, Wagner has published 93 lists. She makes lists to rank her favorite Jane Austen movies, superhero flicks, Hallmark specials and more.
Wagner first became aware of the site in 2014 when she saw a Letterboxd movie list on Twitter. It piqued her interest because Letterboxd lists are formatted to look like a gallery of movie posters neatly positioned side-by-side.
The Ringer reports that Letterboxd’s sleek visuals-first aesthetic is a part of the site’s core since Day 1. Movies are a visual medium, and the site’s founders wanted their platform to reflect that. For reference, here’s one of Wagner’s movie lists:
The lists are also interactive. For example, if you were to click on the “Toy Story.” poster on Wagner’s list, Letterboxd would redirect you to a separate page dedicated to that movie.
There, you’d find info about the movie’s plot, its release date, the cast, where you can stream it. You’d also find a bevy of reviews written by other users.
This is how Letterboxd creates rabbit holes. A visit to Wagner’s profile could lead you a list. That list could take you to a movie’s page. That page could introduce you to a review which could take you to someone else’s profile, then the whole cycle starts over again.
Are there any issues with Letterboxd?
While the site is constantly growing, its backend team is small and not immune to controversy.
The Ringer reports that in 2019, a Letterboxd moderator decided to remove a review of Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 WWII epic “Inglorious Basterds” because it suggested the movie’s violent protagonists time travel to the present and kill Nazis living in the U.S. today.
In a Tweet that is now deleted, Letterboxd attempted to explain why it took down the review. It read:
“We don’t wish to promote any form of violent hatred on our platform, no matter which side you come down on.” (via IndieWire).
That explanation was met with a backlash that prompted the site to post a follow-up message:
“Yesterday, we replied with stupidly chosen words to a Twitter query, without stopping to consider the wider social context, or the similarity between the tweet’s wording and an egregious and harmful statement from a political figurehead. It was wrong and we’re sorry. ...We’ve changed our community policy as of today to reflect this, adding in an explicit line rejecting content that ‘expressly praises, supports, promotes or represents white nationalist ideology.’” (via Indiewire)
For Letterboxd’s managers, the incident proved to be an invaluable lesson on how difficult it is to monitor an online community.
Before the incident, Letterboxd users didn’t have the power to remove hateful comments on their posts. All they could do was flag it and hope a site moderator would see it and take it down.
Letterboxd is expanding, but its progress hasn’t come without a few growing pains.
Is it the real deal — or just a fad?
All signs seem to be pointing toward the real deal. The Times describes the site’s recent growth as “explosive,” with the majority of new users coming from the 18- to 24-year-old demographic.
Gemma Gracewood, the site’s editor-in-chief, sees Letterboxd as not only a form of entertainment for users but also a means of education. She told the Times that Letterboxd’s new users are “coming on having watched ‘The Princess Switch: Switched Again’ and discovering (classics like) ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.’”
Matthew Buchanan, one of Letterboxd’s founders, said the site is not only experiencing an increase in users, but it’s seeing an increase in use as well. “We’ve seen more activity per member,” he told the Times. “Our metrics are up across the board.”
At a time when several industries, including the movie theater business, are struggling to make ends meet, Buchanan had expanded his staff to manage his site’s growth.
The pandemic may have permanently changed the way consume and discuss movies. As our viewing habits continue to trend online through streaming and video-on-demand services, it only makes sense that our discussion habits follow suit.