Letterboxd is like Goodreads for movies, but not owned by Amazon. If you like to keep track of movies you watch, and see your friends’ reviews, check out Letterboxd.
I’m a paying member (It’s like $20/year), so I get stuff, one of which is an expanded year in review.
Here are screenshots from mine:
While I logged 209 films, some of those are short films. I’ve tallied the feature-length films watched in 2024 and the number is 190. As you will see below, July was the biggest month with 25 films (thanks, Covid) and October was the lowest month, with 8 (thanks 50th birthday party).
You can see the influence of both the Hollywood Movie Musical project where I attempted to watch as many movie musicals during my unemployment, starting with the Jazz Singer. That’s how I got five Janette McDonald features. William Wyler being the most-seen director is due to the Filmspotting marathon in the first half of the year.
My biggest week was the week in July I had Covid, when I watched 15 movies. (15!) The movie musicals project really took a great leap forward then. Those high numbers in early February are the Oscar-nominated shorts program, which always throw off the count early in the year. There was only one week I didn’t watch a film, and that (ironically) was the week of my birthday, when I was neck deep in party prep.
I’m glad that my first and last movies of 2024 were both directed by women. I kept track of women-directed films watched, and the total was 57. I’m glad my past goal to watch 52 movies by women in a year has become routine enough that this year I just tracked movies directed by women, rather than written by or directed by women. I think this reflects a slight upswing in directing jobs for women, but probably more my habits and my ability to find movies directed by women.
The Diary Milestones section was interesting, including one movie I watched and had no idea it was a rewatch (Gurnesy), a movie I remembered too late that I barely tolerated one of the actors (Babes), one of my favorite films (Good One) and one of my favorite theater experiences (Outliers and Outlaws).
The other fun thing in this screenshot is the most watched theme: Moving relationship stories (yep, 37 films including Challengers, Nowhere Special, A Real Pain, and Take This Waltz) and the nanogenre weird, dream, journey. That one I had too look up, but yep. Things like Barbie, Turtles All the Way Down, and Nightbitch.
This is always the fun quiz part. Can I remember the films I saw these actors in? We’ve covered Janette MacDonald, but Mr. Chalamet? A Complete Unknown. And what else? Did I watch Call Me By Your Name again?
[Checks]. Ah. I rewatched Lady Bird, plus rewatched Dune, in preparation for Dune: Part Two. So four. No rewatch of Call Me By Your Name.
I am not very good at this game.
I know Catherine O’Hara was in both Beetlejuices, but what about the other two films I saw her in? Apparently she did voice work in Elemental and the Wild Robot. Interestingly, my Zendaya streak is also due to the Dunes, plus Challengers.
Of this list, I think it’s fun that Luca Guadagnino had both one of my favorite films this year (Challengers) and one film that I really did not like (Queer).
Also included in this stat: Longest: Ben Hur (222 minutes, and I watched it over two days). Shortest: I’m Hip (4 minutes, which was an add-on to the Oscar Nominated Short Films Animated Program.
For posterity, here is an alphabetical list of the movies I rated five stars (as of 1/20/25):
- Blitz
- Challengers
- The Fall Guy
- Good One
- Mean Girls
- We Grown Now
- Woman of the Hour
And here are the films I rated four stars (as of 1/20/25)
- Civil War
- Conclave
- The Greatest Night in Pop
- Hard Truths
- Lee
- Love Lies Bleeding
- My Old Ass
- National Anthem
- Outliers and Outlaws
- The Piano Lesson
- A Real Pain
- Rebel Ridge
- Thank you, Goodnight—The Bon Jovi Story
- Tuesday
- Turtles All the Way Down
- Will & Harper
As always, I look at those lists and think, eh, some of those can be adjusted. My Old Ass? Probably should be in the 5-star crowd. Mean Girls? Maybe actually a four-star movie that I watched very early in the year. But the adjusting can go on forever. I really liked all of these movies.