From Thor: Love and Thunder to Jordan Peel's Nope, moviegoers have a lot of different options in theaters now, and the many offerings on each streaming service take that to an entirely different level. However, it can be hard to know what movies are worth paying for and which can be put off until later or ignored. Thankfully, websites like Letterboxd exist to let real people critique and comment on the movies they've watched.
Letterboxd allows movie fans to review and group their favorite movies, and while many do so as was intended, several others use it as a way to indulge their more creative sides. Whether they are intended to help group movies based on a theme or point out films that have basically the same plot, Letterboxd lists have the potential to be incredibly funny to explore.
Calling Out Poster Similarities
Book covers and movie posters go through trends over the years, but sometimes they are too similar to have been made completely independently. In these cases, the movie posters look almost identical, and they are intended as either an homage or plagiarism. Either way, they fit in the "Hello I'd like to report a poster theft" list.
This list has nothing to do with the movies themselves and everything to do with their marketing. Looking at the posters side-by-side, it's impossible not to see the similarities. It can be fun to look at them all and be shocked by how few were obvious knock-offs when they first came out.
Powerful And Dangerous Women
Historically speaking, men can play any role in a film: the hero, the love interest, the villain. However, women have been largely pushed into side roles, where they have to fit into very specific labels. This list is for women who break out of their labels, which often leads to them being seen as the villains. Even so, many female viewers support them in their choices, as described in the title, "'Good For Her' Cinematic Universe."
This list includes all the best movies with female villains that go above and beyond the standard, including Jennifer's Body, Black Swan, The Witch, and more. What makes this list so funny is the idea of them all fitting into one cinematic universe, where the only difference between Mean Girls and The Craft is what high school the new girls happen to transfer to.
Must-Watch Films
Everybody has their own idea of what the best films are, but there are a few that feel critical to American society, like The Godfather and The Wizard of Oz. These classics are the sort of things that Steve Rogers needed to experience, and one Letterboxd user compiled their picks in a list titled, "movies i would show captain america..."
Rather than being filled with the greatest movies of all time, the list has only one entry, and that is High School Musical. As much as it's a joke, it would be hilarious to see Steve, in all seriousness, get the Avengers' attention only to quietly say, "What team?" and get a rousing response of, "Wildcats! Get your head in the game!"
The Sound Of Hearing Loss
It's a lot easier to describe auditory complications in a book than it is on-screen, but movies have decided to include a high-pitched squeal or ringing sound to represent how it feels to have hearing loss. Cinematic examples of this trope were compiled under a list defined by "us hearing EEEEEEEEEEEEE for a few seconds."
Obviously, hearing loss isn't funny, but the widespread use of this device kind of is. Rather than using silence, they actually use more sound to represent hearing difficulties, which is very counterintuitive. The list title perfectly captures the phenomenon and how silly it is, which hopefully will make movies more creative in how they approach hearing impairment in the future.
Ryan Gosling's Jackets
Fans have fixated on a lot of little things about their favorite celebrities, but this one is a little weird. The list is titled "how cool is ryan gosling’s jacket?" and it specifically pulls together Ryan Gosling movies where he wears interesting jackets.
On the one hand, this is funny because it's such a random subject for someone to focus on. It's even funnier because this is an actual topic discussed in the entertainment industry. The Ryan Gosling jacket trend started with his jacket in Drive (via Vogue), but he's talked about his love for jean jackets as recently as this year.
Well-Aged Chemistry
The best actors can play any role, but chemistry is hard to fake. Audiences can pick up on how the actors feel about each other, and some actors with amazing chemistry capitalize on that later in their careers. Examples of this are collected in a list organized by rom-com co-stars that "years later play a married couple."
It's kind of funny to imagine film executives reading posts about how much chemistry two actors have together just to exploit it in a later film, but it's honestly a pretty effective strategy. From Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo to Natasha Leon and Clea Duvall, the pairings work, and they make some pretty fascinating cinematic worlds when the later films are considered sequels.
Cinematic Twins
There can be no better interlude for this list than its title: "Films Where The Main Character Visits His Partner’s Parents House For The First Time, Only To Realise They Are Racists Who Have Hatched A Plan To Have A White Guy Steal Their Identity." This plot description has two sources, which are Jordan Peel's Get Out and Dreamworks Animation's Shrek 2.
This Letterboxd user revealed secrets of the universe with this list, because the similarities between the two movies are shocking. Nobody would think to put these two movies together in any other context, but stripped of all their specifics, they turn out to be twins in a way that is baffling and hilarious.
That's Oddly Specific
Some of the best Letterboxd lists rely on how similar movies can be, and they get hilarious the more detail they add. One example of this is "Hugh Jackman Steals Bread And Raises Children." In its full form, the list describes each film as a major musical where the children of Hugh Jackman's character had an actress from Brokeback Mountain as a mother. For reference, the list includes Les Miserables and The Greatest Showman.
As the classic Doctor Doofenshmirtz meme says, two movies that are that similar "isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice." This list title is extremely specific but manages to be true, and that makes it really fun to think about. Many actors have been trapped in their typecast, but this is a very weird one for Hugh Jackman to have found himself in.
Bruce Wayne's Other Alter-Ego
In 1997, there were two movies that followed extremely similar plots, which are Batman & Robin and Titanic. For those who might question their similarity, this Letterboxd list says it all: "A Selfish Rich Man’s Life Is Upended When A Huge Amount of Ice Intrudes into His Life Unexpectedly in These 1997 Movies About Fighting Over Cartoonishly Large Diamonds."
While fans are free to argue over whether Batman is selfish, pretty much everything else lines up, from the diamonds to the ice. Perhaps Batman's greatest villains just need to try sending icebergs after him more often.
Teenage Film Connoisseur
The world of film is full of people who are convinced there is a right way to enjoy movies, but it's important to drop the pretenses and just enjoy good movies from time to time. The list "i’m 16 and this is the greatest movie" includes a great mix of teen classics and more sophisticated films to capture this approach.
Some films hold up years later while others are cringe-worthy guilty pleasures, but it can be fun to slip back into the mind of a teenager and ignore appearances. While it might be funny to imagine a 16-year-old as a top-tier film critic, it's honestly not a bad list for films that made an impact on an entire generation.