From directors including Kristen Stewart, Joachim Trier and Jafar Panahi, traversing Australia, Nigeria, Iran, Brazil and more, our crew selects fifteen highlights from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival for your watchlists. x2a6u

A pair of the most obscure movies in Shelf Life history top-line our latest edition, alongside Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, Iranian slow cinema, a Tsui Hark classic and queer Canadians.

From Chinatown to Isla Nublar, Indiana Jones to The Matrix, box-office disasters to Best Picture follow-ups, Dan Mecca curates a selection of underrated sequels worth your time, ranging from the 1930s to the 2020s.

From scaling mountains and skyscrapers to hanging off planes and jumping between trains, Dan Mecca ranks the best action sequences from the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Upon Saving Face’s twentieth anniversary, writer-director Alice Wu chats with Adesola Thomas about her history-making rom-com’s lesbian legacy, finding inspiration in Tootsie and why her film is ultimately a love letter to her mother.

As another Cannes Film Festival winds down, filmmakers including Kristen Stewart, Paul Mescal and Gael García Bernal share loves, wishes, and memories on the Croisette to take into the rest of the year and beyond. 

From renegade Black cowboys and dangerous drug dealers to the foxiest women and smoothest men around, Robert Daniels curates a selection of Blaxploitation films to celebrate the most dynamite genre in the game.

Be entered to win a private screening of Wes Anderson’s new globe-trotting comedy adventure (or one of three runner-up prizes) by solving the clues to collect seven The Phoenician Scheme-inspired items hidden around Letterboxd.

As teens scream their way through hallways haunted by everything from demonic cheerleaders to bloodthirsty teachers, Jenni Kaye sharpens her pencils for a syllabus of high school horror where detention is deadly, prom night gets bloody and the kids are definitely not alright.

With the release of his decades-spanning new feature Caught by the Tides, filmmaker Jia Zhangke speaks with Jourdain Searles about the necessity to keep going, the freedom of karaoke bars, the popularity of Flash Animation and more.

Our picks of under-the-radar gems from this month’s new releases. This edition includes a tropical Brazilian noir, a Scott Pilgrim-esque coming-of-ager, a history-making character study and a couple of expectation-subverting horrors.

As this year marks the twentieth anniversary of the Hand Flex that shook the world, Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright, star Matthew Macfadyen and many more dig into the touching details that continue to bewitch audiences, body and soul.

To fête the 70th anniversary of Rififi, Brandon Streussnig investigates the deep impact of the influential 1955 French noir, from the safe-cracking in Thief to the wire heist in Mission: Impossible.

Ahead of this year’s Festival de Cannes, Rafa Sales Ross highlights eleven films playing on the Croisette, including the return of Palme d’Or-winner Julia Ducournau, Alexander Skarsgård as a leather-clad queer biker, and a Chinese spin on Black Swan.

In celebration of Mother’s Day, the Letterboxd crew shares the love for our favorite movie moms, from Marmee March to murderous matriarchs and beyond.

Josh Hartnett breaks down his career with Mitchell Beaupre, including his surprise at being cast as a heartthrob in The Virgin Suicides, how Black Hawk Down was changed by 9/11, bringing peak Girl Dad energy to Trap and more.

As Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg receives a 4K Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection, Öykü Sofuoğlu sings out the deep impact of the film’s bright colors and bittersweet melodies.

For the twentieth anniversary of House of Wax, director Jaume Collet-Serra and cinematographer Stephen F. Windon speak with Mitchell Beaupre about the film’s most memorable death scenes, stunning practical sets, notorious marketing for Paris Hilton and more.

A brand new label on the circuit, a classic for the boozers, Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep falling in love, French cannibalism and the ultimate date movie for goths all feature in the latest edition of Shelf Life.

As Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer puts Nicolas Cage in an existential death match against aggressive Australian locals, Jenni Kaye waxes tragic with a list of films where the sand sticks, the sun burns and the vibes are fatally off.

Ahead of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Xuanlin Tham examines the enduring impact of Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine, which premiered at the fest 30 years ago and whose anti-police themes of resistance remain relevant today.

As Havoc tears it up on Netflix, director Gareth Evans and star Tom Hardy speak with Mitchell Beaupre about the Hong Kong films and ’70s crime dramas that influenced them, then break down the animalistic brutality they brought to their action-noir.

With Sinners sinking its identical twin fangs into film lovers, Katie Rife rounds up twenty of the best dual performance dead ringers in cinema history, from 1920s-era silent sisters to modern-day brawling brothers (two Nicolas Cages!).

With The Shrouds now in theaters, David Cronenberg talks to Mia Lee Vicino about making a career out of bodies and creatures, humor (and “hole horror”) as a survival tool and why he believes that all of his films are rom-coms.

As Gina Prince-Bythewood’s feature debut Love & Basketball turns 25, Robert Daniels examines the film’s tender ion, heated competition and how both romance and sport operate differently depending on your gender.

As Emilie Blichfeldt’s dark fairy tale The Ugly Stepsister casts a spell over Letterboxd , Katie Rife leafs through the pages of the storybook genre and its horror impact, from honking imps to jealous spirits.

As Killer of Sheep lands back in theaters with a new 4K restoration, Adesola Thomas speaks with filmmaker Charles Burnett about his six-decade long filmography and the deep impact of making films about Black domestic life in Southern California.

Our picks of under-the-radar gems from this month’s new releases. This edition includes a cross-culture love affair, a decade-spanning queer musical, a genre-blending Brooklyn tapestry and more.

To celebrate 25 years of American Psycho’s bone-deep impact, writer-director Mary Harron chats with Mia Lee Vicino about women’s retroactive embrace of the film on Letterboxd, Christian Bale’s physical comedy prowess and why Patrick Bateman is a total dork.

Filmmaker Tony Gilroy speaks with Mitchell Beaupre about the long gestation period, studio doubts, sterling casting and unexpectedly enduring impact of his legal thriller masterpiece Michael Clayton. Plus: Bourne, Duplicity, Andor and more.

From legendary gunslingers and iconic rock stars to caped crusaders and catty private eyes, we look back at some of the Letterboxd community’s favorite Val Kilmer films.

A pair of subversive Clint Eastwood Westerns hit 4K, police brutality gets a French reckoning, lesbians partake in High Art, Wesley Snipes enters the Drop Zone and we all feed bad at the Love Hotel in the latest round of Shelf Life highlights.

With awards season in the rearview mirror, Leo Koziol guides us through the year in Indigenous cinema, from tearjerking school choirs and emotional ance marathons to haunting explorations of forced assimilation.

For the 20th anniversary of spy picture D.E.B.S., Drew Burnett Gregory looks at how the film’s subversive take on rom-com and espionage thriller tropes were misunderstood upon release yet endure for the queer community today.

For the 30th anniversary of Exotica, filmmaker Atom Egoyan speaks with Mitchell Beaupre about collective grief, rituals that harm and heal, notes that would have ruined the movie, and the struggle to remain a distinctive voice.

Long, harrowing road trips, reality competition shows, bubblegum wastelands, multiverse mayhem and the return of Matthew McConaughey are among our crew’s highlights from this year’s SXSW Film Festival.

Our picks of under-the-radar gems from this month’s new releases. This edition includes a baseball hangout, dystopian domesticity, a Capra-esque exploration of identity, Zambian magical realism and a secret mall apartment.

With the Final Destination series turning 25 this year and the arrival of Final Destination Bloodlines , Matt Goldberg speaks to filmmaker James Wong and looks at the best deaths in a horror series that recognizes the Grim Reaper as the greatest slasher of all time.

As Mickey 17 takes audiences into Bong Joon Ho’s singular world once again, we dive into the Letterboxd community’s ranking of the director’s entire filmography from best to worst.

In our latest edition of Shelf Life, a Todd Field standout gets its Blu-ray debut, ’60s SoCal is laced with existential dread, a Cronenberg double feature hits 4K, Godzilla does battle and we go to the stars.

From dirty detectives and deadbeat dads to craven crime lords and canny con artists, we look back at some of the Letterboxd community’s favorite Gene Hackman performances.

Ahead of the 2025 edition of the SXSW Film Festival, Annie Lyons unearths early trends in this year’s program, including extraterrestrial nightmares, three-pointed romances and entomology excitement.

Our weekly awards season digest wraps up with an Academy Awards celebration—and Coralie Fargeat’s insight into her Oscar-winning hair and make-up team’s creation of Monstro Elisasue.

In an annual tradition, we round off awards season by crowning our Most Picture. Ella Kemp hears from the Letterboxd logging Dune: Part Two up to 200 times, as well as director Denis Villeneuve and the sound and visual effects teams of this year’s most rewatched Best Picture nominee.

In celebration of her new book, Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words, author Marya E. Gates selects one sensational film from each of the nineteen women filmmakers she has interviewed to highlight the breadth of artistic contributions they have made to cinema’s past, present and future.

As horror continues to shape some of Hollywood’s greatest artists, we trace the early genre roots of ten Oscar winners—from vampire Westerns to slasher sequels—and explore how scares paved the way to the golden statue.

The Letterboxd crew proudly present our inaugural celebration of the finest hyper-specific achievements in the past year of cinema. Our wildly subjective awards honor the best in categories ranging from Girl Dad to Sexy Accessory to Prosthetic Appendage. Envelopes, please! 

Our weekly awards-season digest assesses the Spirits and SAG winners, where Seans Baker and Wang triumphed, Moore and Madison continued to trade trophies, and Chalamet pulled a surprise victory. Plus: Sean Baker on the Anora font and Ani’s Juul.

As Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey clangs terror into the hearts of Letterboxd , Katie Rife scours the junkyards and creepy antique shops to put together a sinister collection of cursed objects, from blood-red dresses to sentient tires named Robert.

Our picks of under-the-radar gems from this month’s new releases. This edition includes an Oscar-nominated documentary (and our highest rated feature of 2024), a time-traveling rom-com and the first all-Indigenous comedy special.