This past week, I was asked to share either a fun fact or a boring fact about my summer. As someone who dreads the infamous “fun fact” icebreaker at the beginning of the year, I opted for the latter — sharing a boring fact takes the pressure off these icebreakers and ironically often results in more interesting conversations.
My boring fact — although I would argue it is a fun fact — is that I finally joined the app Letterboxd this summer. Letterboxd is an app I have heard about for some time, but I had never given it much thought. A highlight of my summer, however, was attempting to see as many movies as possible.
My local movie theater in Virginia Beach has discounted tickets on Tuesdays, and soon enough, Tuesday Movie Night earned a standing position on my calendar. I was even able to wrangle my brother into joining the Tuesday movie fun, which included a range of screenings — from “Twisters” to “Trap” and “Inside Out 2” to “Deadpool & Wolverine.” I have always loved going to the movies during the summer, and post-pandemic life has made me appreciate the simple pleasure of viewing a movie with an audience even more.
Given my movie-centric summer, I finally decided to take the plunge into the world of Letterboxd. As an already avid-fan of Goodreads, branching into Letterboxd seemed like a no-brainer. I quickly began to rack my brain for all the movies I have ever seen, so I could create an archive of my movie history that was as accurate as possible. Of course, this task is virtually impossible, but whenever I remember a film I have seen, I still immediately add it to my Letterboxd. It makes me feel nostalgic to go back and log some of my childhood favorites, like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Free Willy.”
The real fun of Letterboxd is adding friends to your account, allowing you to read and exchange reviews with each other. I love Goodreads for this exact reason, so extending this to the realm of film has been extremely fun. It creates exciting and often funny conversations surrounding film all within a singular app — and I am able to keep up with friends who have graduated by seeing both what they’re watching and what they’re thinking about their most recent-watches.
While I particularly enjoyed Letterboxd during my summer-of-the-movie, I have plans to keep flexing my movie-loving muscles. I am very much looking forward to seeing Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield on-screen in the October release of “We Live in Time.” I also have my eye on the forthcoming schedule of the Virginia Film Festival. U.Va. students can reserve one free ticket for each film screened at the VAFF, which is an amazing way to see some of the best upcoming films.
If you were looking for a sign to take a study break and finally get around to seeing that movie that has been on your watchlist for far too long, this is it — but don’t forget to log it on Letterboxd!