Letterboxd is a social platform for logging, rating and reviewing films that launched in 2011 and has since inspired its own meme subgenre[1].

Where did Letterboxd come from?

It was built by New Zealanders Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow, launched from Brooklyn in October 2011 and opened its public beta on April 24th, 2012[1].

What does Letterboxd mean?

As a meme, Letterboxd refers to two things: Insane Letterboxd Reviews screenshotted onto Twitter, and the Film Bro stereotype attached to the site's users[3].

How do you use Letterboxd?

On the app itself, users log movies they watch, give star ratings and post reviews; as a meme, people screenshot the strangest reviews to Twitter or make jokes about the site's user base[8].

Is Letterboxd still popular?

Yes, the platform had already reached about three million members by July 2021 and is still active out of Auckland, New Zealand[2][7].

Letterboxd

2011website / community memeactive

Letterboxd is a social platform for logging, reviewing and rating movies that launched in October 2011 and became a meme fixture in the late 2010s. Its user base spawned the Insane Letterboxd Reviews genre and the wider Film Bro stereotype that flooded Twitter and Reddit from 2017 onward.

letterboxd memes pseudo intellectual memes twitter memes movie quote memes stereotype memes

Overview

Letterboxd is a social movie-tracking site where users log films they've watched, star-rate them, drop short reviews and build public lists1. It's been running since October 2011 and hit roughly three million members by July 20212.

The meme side of Letterboxd is separate from the product itself. Screenshots of the site's reviews, usually surreal, horny, or brutally short, took off on Twitter as Insane Letterboxd Reviews3. Alongside that, the platform's user base picked up a Film Bro reputation, mocked in memes as pretentious dudes overexplaining Pulp Fiction and American Psycho4.

Origin & Background

Platform

Letterboxd.com (site launch) / Twitter (viral spread)

Creator

Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow

Date

2011

Letterboxd was built by New Zealanders Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow and soft-launched from Brooklyn in October 2011, with the public beta opening on April 24th, 20121. Buchanan later told LA Mag he wanted an IMDb-style app people could actually follow each other on, and by November 2019 the site had about 1.5 million users5.

Membership stayed invite-only through 2012, sitting near 40,000 users that February, and only became fully open on February 8th, 20136. The company is based in Auckland, New Zealand7.

How It Spread

The first wave of Letterboxd-native memes came from the reviews themselves. A December 2017 review of Call Me By Your Name by user BRAT is one of the earliest widely cited Insane Letterboxd Reviews, picking up around 10,600 likes on the platform8. From October 2018, screenshot reposts started jumping to Twitter, including @BRlGSBYBEAR's screenshot of a First Man review that pulled roughly 1,600 likes9.

The second wave was about the users, not the reviews. On October 28th, 2018, @sweatpantspapi tweeted the line comparing Letterboxd users to "15-year-old bisexual anarchists," and on November 29th, 2018, @tylerllewtaing posted a widely shared joke about "men on letterboxd" that hit about 1,200 likes3. From there the Film Bro framing stuck.

Reddit picked the format up in 2020. The r/Letterboxd subreddit had existed since December 18th, 20126, but the first meme there openly ribbing Letterboxd users was posted August 8th, 2020, by u/NEWBURNz and cleared roughly 400 upvotes3. Hype around Parasite in 2019 and the site's August 30th, 2017 iOS/Android app launch both fed the meme wave by pulling more people onto the platform10.

How to Use This Meme

The meme typically works one of two ways. Insane Letterboxd Reviews are screenshots of real four-and-a-half-star reviews that read like fever dreams, a single crude joke, or one-line character assassinations, usually posted to Twitter with no added caption3. Film Bro jokes ride the opposite direction, mocking a stereotyped Letterboxd guy who logs Pulp Fiction and American Psycho and writes essay-length reviews to sound smart4.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (9)