letterboxd, the vexing and sometimes OK film logging website

I would also say find people you like and follow what they're up to. A lot of the frustration I hear from ppl regarding letterboxd mostly comes from just checking the most popular reviews of films, which can often be jokes or bad criticism, especially if it's a big mainstream film (mainstream here in relative terms - I wouldn't look up reviews for Tár or Triangle Of Sadness for example). If you manage to create a good ecosphere of ppl you respect you almost never have to do this.

xposts

Nobody really cares about the ratings too much on Letterboxd - which is good because let's face it nobody uses a 5* rating system the same exact way

Honestly i just love having a diary/journal of all my movie watching to look back on to figure out the last time I saw something was, and to commiserate with my local filmgoers in short bursts

^ this -- I rarely read reviews (and dislike the lowercase, sub-twitter wisecrack ones) and mostly use it just to track when and what I watch, and bookmark films for our household's weekly movie night. I will consult the average star ratings, though; I have to really be interested in the premise/vibe/subject matter to watch a 3.2 or below.

Also, my memory tends to collapse/blur together periods of my life a bit, but when I go back and see a film I logged (or a book on Goodreads), it helps me remember what was going on in my life when I watched or read that particular item. "Oh yeah, I watched this when I was in that folk horror phase because of X and Y" etc.

The average star ratings are not to be trusted imo, especially when it comes to stuff doing the rounds at festivals - way too many hot shot 18 year old Cinephiles giving stupidly low ratings. There's an Angolan movie that has a 2 star rating and none of the reviews make the slightest effort to understand its cultural context or get on the film's wavelenght.

Fundamentally I feel a 3/5 rating should be "average", watchable, decent etc. while most people seem to treat it as a failing test grade

On the flip side, I've given many "trash" films 5* because they're the best at what they are and immensely enjoyable, just as worthwhile if not more than what's been established as canon

If you really do like a film or watch it repeatedly or get something out of it then there's nothing wrong with giving it 4 and a half or 5 stars.

You can always change the rating later if you watch it again and it doesn't hold up.

If you’re going to use star ratings at all it only makes sense to do it your own way. I’ve only given two films star ratings and they’re both 5 stars.

i shd write more reviews, i only wrote one so far (independence day, 1.5 stars)

i watch films all the time and have opinions which make u think

Or you could write another book of those opinions?

also possible yes

Xp

I'm kind of leaning towards giving no star ratings lately tbh

Otoh, Independence Day deserves 3 stars - it's fun and entertaining trash!

it's boring and annoying

u shd read my review

What's your lb handle?

p_nk_s

hope u write a second review mark s

i shd and one day i will

btw silby, I really dug your recent lb review of The Long Goodbye.

ty I felt nice abt that one

Elliott Gould #2 on my Hottest Movie Men list (#1 Mifune)

i also liked that review ty silby!

I sometimes worry my ratings are inflated but then I'll see something so many degrees worse than most of what I watch, not even an infinite scale could put it in perspective

Yeah, I just don't watch bad films that often anymore. Refusing to go see things just because there's #discourse has helped.

You can always change the rating later if you watch it again and it doesn't hold up.

This is a great aspect of LB imo - star ratings always in flux, to be changed upon rewatch.

I think I've posted this before, but this is usually my dumb guide:

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/rating-scale.jpg

I like this Dan S. Rainbow scale

Truly, no one I follow has more alluringly idiosyncratic favorite film lists: https://sallittfavorites.wordpress.com/

I like using Letterboxd but whenever a review calls any movie whatsoever “boring” I get incandescently mad

rt

Helpful discussion. I think if I sign up, my plan will be to avoid ratings and avoid writing reviews per se – I’m mostly interested in exploring older world cinemas, and maybe journaling some of that, if I can think of anything to write.

I haven't reviewed or starred anything, I suppose I'm just leeching off of other's watch lists/diaries. I have no shortage of things to watch, but often I'll see something pass by on my friends list that left-field enough to get a "what the hell is that?" It may just be a cool poster and no review at all, but tbf I did buy records based only on the artwork.

Wait ILX0r Dan S is Dan Sallitt?

Yeah, I don't rate/review anything, either. I just log the films I watch. I like reading other people's reviews, though.

When I signed up a while into the pandemic, I was reviewing each film I logged, but that got tiresome. Instead, I assigned a shorthand to the star ratings (which I borrowed from Michael B and modified). Works well enough.

Follow me for more middlebrow viewing! https://letterboxd.com/mondosalvo/

I like your rubric. I've been reluctant to assign star ratings because I feel like I would overthink it, but maybe I just need to develop something like that.

When I signed up a while into the pandemic, I was reviewing each film I logged, but that got tiresome. Instead, I assigned a shorthand to the star ratings (which I borrowed from Michael B and modified). Works well enough.

hehe I borrowed and modified Mike's too.

Honoured to be an influence lol

Speaking of reviews, how come the pithy one-reviews I write get more likes than the reviews I devote a bit of time to?!

Because that's the style favored by the youngs of today. My follower count would be off the charts if could just bring myself to write 'slaaaay' and hit post.

perhaps the greatest skill is editing your review down to a single word or phrase that best conveys your thoughts

What’s your boxd again, Michael B?

https://letterboxd.com/carrotbourke

the correct way to use the stars is to force yr readers to triangulate the quality of the films with the content of yr reviews so as to work out how yr numbering system operates

xp thanks! Following

mark s probably has one of those letterboxd accounts where everything that’s rated is a tepid 1 - 3 stars with the exception of a single 5-star Shrek review

I will not be checking to confirm this

How did you know???

a couple of friends and I came up with this for the ratings, probably pretty similar overall to everyone else’s

5 — special, all time favorite
4.5 — near perfect movie
4 — great, one of the best of the year
3.5 — really good, some flaws but worth seeing in a theater
3 — solid, worth seeing if you like that genre
2.5 — uneven, too many problems, but some redeeming qualities
2 — a mess but I can see what they’re trying to do
1.5 and below, various degrees of feeling insulted having had to watch it

my ratings skew toward the higher end, I don’t do this for a living or anything so I generally am only going to see movies I’m interested in

I’m @radiokeller

Yeah, I'm generally a softy when rating things because I also don't seek out films I think I won't like.

However, my lowest score belongs to 'The Villain,' a live-action Warner Bros cartoon from the late 70s with Kirk Douglas and Arnold Schwarzenegger that I thought was hilarious as a kid and realized as an adult it isn't funny or even competently made.

I'm probably throwing the algorithms off because I never use the star ratings - just the check as to whether or not I liked it. If I'm watching something that is clearly crashing-and-burning for me, I'm out. I'm not sticking around to go, yup... that's a 1 star p.o.s. and I'm affirming that I watched every frame of it.

I don't watch things I know I wont like either. So it looks like I like everything but hey ho. It's not like anybody will follow me for recs.