My Letterboxd Top Four: Your New Favorite Movies

I’ve never had a true diary — unless we’re talking about my Letterboxd profile. As a prolific user since 2019, my Letterboxd account serves as a time capsule of my tastes over time. Looking through it reminds me of how much I’ve grown and changed, how my interests have shifted, and how my appreciations and values have pivoted. For me, it serves as a personal journal and as a way for me to connect and share with my friends — and my 10th grade English teacher — who are equally obsessed with movies. We use it to talk, relate, remember, share, and laugh. Most importantly, it serves as a place for me to speak freely about the films I love, the films I hate, the ones that make me laugh, and the ones that make me cry.

Letterboxd is a place where the phrase “everyone is a critic” takes on its best and truest meaning. It’s the first place I felt true freedom to write whatever I wished, while being thoroughly entertained by the unfettered thoughts of others. The reviews one can find are anywhere from scathing to doting, long to brief, and heartfelt to humorous. My Letterboxd is a place where I feel both vulnerable and deeply expressive. In sharing my Letterboxd top four, I hope that I at least inspire you to create an account and, at best, that it inspires you to watch one or two or all of these excellent films.

1. “Shiva Baby” — Dir. Emma Seligman

“Shiva Baby,” directed by Emma Seligman and released in 2021, is a campy and hilarious film starring Rachel Sennot in her breakout role. It follows Danielle (Rachel Sennott) — a young Jewish woman who is forced to go to a shiva, a Jewish mourning ritual, with her parents. While there, she runs into her ex-girlfriend and her “sugar daddy,” and she is forced to navigate those relationships while juggling interactions with her family and friends. The film does an excellent job of building tension and then diffusing it with well-timed comedic dialogue and quick camera cuts. The film is a funny, tense, and sentimental coming-of-age story that bounces back and forth from drama to thriller to comedy. One moment you’re watching anxiously and the next you’re laughing aloud. It begs the question of why anyone should watch a movie that makes them feel sick to their stomach? But, I would argue, what is the purpose of art if not to leave you feeling an emotion so potent and intense it makes you a little nauseous? That is what this movie does — it takes you on a rollercoaster of increasingly deranged emotions and situations and spits you out feeling giggly, tense, and utterly satisfied.

2. “Training Day” — Dir. Antoine Fuqua

Next up is the 2001 film “Training Day,” directed by Antoine Fuqua. Young Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke as a cop duo in California? Sign me up. The movie follows the two protagonists over the course of 24 hours as Officer Jake Hoyt (Hawke) spends the day with Detective Harris (Washington) in the hope of achieving a promotion. The movie, similarly to the last one, is a somewhat tense ordeal. The initial nerves and hesitancy eventually turn into outright trepidation as the movie progresses toward its climax. The film does an excellent job of enveloping its viewers in the atmosphere of a gang-ridden L.A. in the early 2000s. It’s full of cultural references and icons, truly enveloping viewers in its dilapidated, yet alluring, urban landscape. The world building and character development are deliciously surprising and insightful. The more you learn, the more you’re pulled into the story. The performances are stunning, and the plot twist is one of my favorites of all time. It’s a thriller, a cop drama, and a little bit gory — but overall, it’s a movie that takes you along for a high-speed and high-stakes ride that I, personally, will never forget.

3. “Singin’ in the Rain” — Dir. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly

I like to consider myself a cinephile, despite the fact that I struggle to watch movies that were created before the 1990s. That being said, this 1952 film is an inarguable classic. It follows the love story and careers of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), and Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) as entertainers in the 1920s. As the film industry transitions from silent films to “talkies,” the two fall in love. It’s a romance, a comedy, and a musical with a surprisingly contemporary feel. The film tells the age-old story of a world on the brink of change, and an industry in flux, following the characters as they move from the present into the future. It is sweet and nostalgic, fun and vibrant. A wonderfully balanced film, it manages to be playful, insightful, and sincere. The songs and dance numbers are thoroughly entertaining and well-choreographed — even non-musical lovers would enjoy them. It’s also sneakily comical, with comedic timing and physical comedy working on multiple levels. “Singin’ in the Rain” is one of those movies that most people have heard of but many haven’t watched. This is me telling you to finally go watch it!

4. “Good Time” — Dir. Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie

“Good Time,” a 2017 film directed by the Safdie Brothers, and starring Benny Safdie and Robert Pattinson, follows the Nikas brothers Connie (Pattinson) and Nick as they rob a bank and face the consequences. The remainder of the film happens over the course of a day as Connie undertakes an elaborate and highly illegal plot to help save his brother. The Safdie brothers have a wondrous habit of creating painfully electrifying thrillers with arresting cinematography, scores, and scenery. The atmosphere is perpetually unnerving and taut — each moment feels as though something is going to snap. The use of color, contrast, and quick camera movement makes for a visually arresting and visceral film. It’s a movie you view with bated breath, waiting and watching until time inevitably runs out. Pattinson does an amazing job in the role — his character constantly oozes desperation, fear, anger, and love. The entire film is laced with candidness through naturalistic dialogue and moments where viewers can sense and hear the innermost emotions of the characters as if they were real people. Furthermore, the film brings its characters and settings to life in a way I rarely experience. It’s another film where you feel so nervous that you can hardly bear to look. But you do look — and when it’s over, it’s one of the best films you’ve seen.