The Letterboxd Show

“You find a lot out about yourselves from watching films.” Lauren, Martin (aka Dok) and Iain from Chvrches talk about the horror movies that influenced their new album Screen Violence , why they dropped album hints on their Letterboxd profile , and their five (!) favorite films: The Exorcist (“you can still get people with that film”); A Nightmare on Elm Street ; Scream ; Carrie and Get Out . Plus...

“We love doing this.” Letterboxd’s co-founders Matthew and Karl take hosts Slim (of 70mm podcast infamy) and Gemma (Letterboxd editor-in-chief) through two each of their four favorites ( Commando ; Short Circuit ; Shaun of the Dead and Badlands ), on the occasion of their creation turning ten. Also: how Letterboxd Easter eggs get made. Why Arnie is the ultimate movie dad. Celebrating Rae Dawn Chon...

“I never learned how to make movies, I learned how to watch them,” says non-fiction filmmaker and film historian Jenni Olson as she talks lesbian runaways, spy spoofs and radical acts of love via her four Letterboxd faves: D.E.B.S. ; Times Square ; News from Home and Tongues Untied . Also: lesbian film tourism; men and their feelings; the joys of 16mm; Tim Curry as a New York DJ; Gemma drops some...

We discuss the eternal charms of Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro with Jake Cunningham and Michael Leader , the co-hosts of the famed Ghibliotheque podcast , who have a delightful new book out about the Studio Ghibli universe . Plus: thirsting for Bob Hoskins and being terrified by Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit . Is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade a better sequel-prequel than The God...

YouTuber, filmmaker and Letterboxd member Karsten Runquist takes hosts Slim (of 70mm podcast infamy) and Gemma (Letterboxd’s editor-in-chief) through his four Letterboxd favorites. Karsten’s top four change often, but his all-time faves are: Fantastic Mr. Fox ; Synecdoche, New York ; Wendy and Lucy ; and Gaspar Noé’s Climax . Also: queuing for the wrong movie at film festivals, turning off Letterb...

Writer, director, hopeful romantic and Letterboxd member Jonah Feingold chats about how Jurassic Park influenced his rom-com feature debut Dating & New York , and his four Letterboxd favorites: Hook; When Harry Met Sally…; The Lion King ; and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl . Also: Meg Ryan’s glorious back-lit hair, filming New York with a Pro-Mist filter, cold-emailing...

On this episode, film archivist and adult-movie enthusiast Justin LaLiberty (of Vinegar Syndrome ) unleashes the Dogg for his four Letterboxd faves: Showdown in Little Tokyo ; Bones ; Breathless (the Richard Gere remake); and SexWorld . We also discuss the wildly underrated action star Dolph Lundren, the wildly underrated director Ernest R. Dickerson, why it’s stupid that remakes get a bad rap, th...

Actor, writer and director Billie Piper talks to Gemma Gracewood about the filmic influences behind her ‘anti-rom-com’ directorial debut, Rare Beasts , a black comedy about dysfunction, misogyny, grief and tap-dancing also starring Leo Bill, Kerry Fox, Toby Woolf, David Thewlis and Lily James. Plus: the movies that got Piper’s family through multiple lockdowns, the chaotic splendour of Paul Thomas...

Classic film enthusiast, writer, California native, and prog rock fan Marya E. Gates discusses her four favorites: Little Women (the Winona Ryder one); Bright Star ; Under the Tuscan Sun ; and Crossing Delancey . Also: the joys of a nice ass in a pair of tight denim (“I firmly believe that almost anybody’s butt looks good in a nicely fitted pair of jeans”) , 4K butts, Pickle Man appreciation, Jane...

Comedian, musician and The Ringer Music Show podcast host Grace Spelman discusses her four Letterboxd faves ( West Side Story ; All That Jazz ; In the Loop and Whiplash ) with hosts Slim and Gemma . Also: party bangers, scary music teachers, bad movie dates, unapologetic laptop movie-watching, Alan Partridge, and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story remake . Plus: why is All That Jazz so ha...

“I should have never agreed to this podcast,” says indie filmmaking champion Jim Cummings as he sobs his way through his four Letterboxd faves ( Inside Out ; Krisha ; Children of Men ; and The ’Burbs ) with hosts Slim and Gemma . Also: arm wrestling, humiliating characters, being an actor-director, DILFs, a Halloween Kills scoop, Tom Hanks’ comedy chops, exploding plates, and Jim’s next feature fi...

This episode, quadruple-threat filmmaker Isabel Sandoval talks to Slim and Gemma about cinematic edging, sensual slapstick, nuns on screen, modern Filipino cinema, Verhoeven’s camp supremacy, audience blue balls, and, of course, her four Letterboxd favorites: Hiroshima Mon Amour , Jeanne Dielman , In the Mood for Love and Punch-Drunk Love . Slim, meanwhile, googles “French New Wave” while Gemma po...

This episode, we get high and turn the Yo-Yo Ma up to eleven with Letterboxd’s Cannes correspondent Brian Formo, whose four favorites ( Eyes Wide Shut ; Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World ; Darkman ; The Skin I Live In ) all feature surgeons of some sort. Plus: Cannes applause explained, bad movie dates, Russell Crowe’s luscious locks, how much we love Sally Jane Black, and Pig —the s...

This episode, we hit the sweet spot with actor , writer , director and Letterboxd member Josh Ruben, whose new comedy-horror Werewolves Within is out now on video on demand. Josh takes hosts Slim and Gemma through his four favorites: Darkman, Jaws, Little Children and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. We praise Steve Martin’s dramatic roles, Spielberg’s “little mumblecore fish movie”, the secret to...

This episode, we do a f—kin’ triple with Demi Adejuyigbe ; screenwriter, comedian and, quote, “not a critic”. Demi runs hosts Slim and Gemma through his four Letterboxd favorites: I, Tonya (“every scene is like candy to me”) , Ocean’s Eleven (the Soderbergh one), Hot Rod (“ the last truly great American goofball comedy ”), and Lady Bird (“it literally changed my life”). Plus: the joy of Mary Poppi...

A podcast hosted in fear is a podcast half-hosted—so now we have two hosts! Slim and Gemma introduce a new format, in which we interrogate a guest about their four Letterboxd favorites. First in the hot seat: the hosts themselves. Slim makes Gemma watch Vanilla Sky, while Gemma puts Slim through his bago-pago with Strictly Ballroom. Plus: Daniel Day-Lewis’s most surprising role, Paul Verhoeven’s n...

Nomadland author and “newbie cinephile” Jessica Bruder joins host Gemma Gracewood for a chat about her favorite films, working night-shifts at Starbucks with Christina Ricci’s brother, Chloé Zhao’s unique directing magic, and why Shaun the Sheep Movie is way too stressful. The Last Vermeer star Guy Pearce drops by to talk about the intoxicating joys of interrogation scenes, the greatest Australian...

In this bumper episode, Letterboxd mutuals Demi Adejuyigbe and Mia Vicino (AKA Brat Pitt) join Gemma Gracewood to talk about the top films in the 2020 Year in Review , their favorite Letterboxd features, the highs and lows of being ‘Letterboxd famous’, and why jobs are stupid. This episode also features a load of butt-talk, courtesy of The Kid Detective writer-director Evan Morgan and star Adam Br...

Host Gemma Gracewood and guests Slim ( 70mm Podcast ), Hannah Woodhead ( Little White Lies ’ Truth & Movies podcast) and Tim Batt ( The Worst Idea Of All Time podcast ) gather on the first Cats iversary of Tom Hooper’s mewsical misfire to look back at the so-bad-it’s-good films that got us through 2020, plus: our favorite “5-Bangers” of the year.  Highlights include: Slim’s The New Mutant...

Letterboxd editor-in-chief Gemma Gracewood hosts animation heads Toussaint Egan and Kambole Campbell , together at last, for a ramble through their all-time animation faves. Wolfwalkers director Tomm Moore on myths, hallucinogens, Wes Anderson and the joys of the Frozen soundtrack. Highlights include: all the love for Akira and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse ; Kambole’s short-lived stop-motion...

In this episode the yuletide gets gayer with Happiest Season ’s favorite sister, Jane—AKA the film’s co-writer Mary Holland—and Dana Nachman, director of a documentary love letter to the US Postal Service, Dear Santa (and crowd-pleasers Pick of the Litter and Batkid Begins ). Plus: Love Actually ’s missing lesbians, our spooky new theme music, and Die Hard or Die Hard 2 ? It’s the battle of the Ch...

Tears flow as writer-director Darius Marder and actor and ASL rocker Paul Raci join Letterboxd’s editor-in-chief Gemma Gracewood to talk about their new film Sound of Metal , in which Ruben (Riz Ahmed), a punk-rock drummer suffering hearing loss, turns to adult deafness coach Joe (Raci, the son of deaf parents). We talk disability representation in movies, the Serenity Prayer as film structure, he...

Our London correspondent Ella Kemp joins Letterboxd’s editor-in-chief Gemma Gracewood to talk about their highlights from the fall festival season. Later they’re joined by actor, writer and first-time feature director Cooper Raiff and his Shithouse co-star Dylan Gelula to talk college, crying, comfort films, and Dylan’s Letterboxd habits .  Films and links mentioned: Synchronic David Byrne’s...

Actor, writer and director Jim Cummings joins Letterboxd’s editor-in-chief Gemma Gracewood to talk about his brand new film The Wolf of Snow Hollow , Robert Forster’s final role, toxic masculinity, tears, montages, werewolves, Fight Club , Fincher, turning shorts into features, his Letterboxd favorites, and the enduring emotional power of Inside Out ’s Bing Bong. Films and lists mentioned: Rope Re...

Letterboxd’s editor in chief Gemma Gracewood and lists editor Jack Moulton discuss their favorite docs of 2020 so far. Letterboxd members call in with their own top-doc picks, and we’re joined by Eli Despres and Elyse Steinberg , two-thirds of the directing team behind The Fight , which follows ACLU lawyers as they argue for major social justice issues including trans rights in the military and ab...