The Letterboxd Show

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 Hans Zimmer for a job, being filmmaking besties with Aneesh Chaganty, and the emotional rollercoaster of being on Letterboxd with a new movie out (“I celebrate all the reviews of my film. Some of the five star ones made me cry, some of the three star ones made me cry…”).

Dating & New York stars Jaboukie Young-White and Francesca Reale and is in select US theaters and everywhere films are rented from September 10, 2021, via IFC Films.

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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, the experience of seeing Cronenberg’s Crash far too young, working in video stores and movie theaters, Justin’s recent curatorial work on Letterboxd’s adult titles, and—again!—why Babe: Pig in the City is a five-star film.

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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 Anderson, her love of Busby Berkeley and Pina Bausch, plus Cassavetes, Curtis, Dunham, Beyoncé, and the only celebrity she has ever been starstruck by. Rare Beasts is now in select US theaters and on demand, as of August 20, 2021.

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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 Campion’s mastery of chaste eroticism and the hotness of Gabriel Byrne.

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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 hard to find? And, who would win in a dance battle between theater kids and A24 nerds?

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“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 film, The Beta Test, which is coming out this fall via IFC Films.

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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 pours yet another coffee. Isabel wrote, directed, edited and starred in Lingua Franca, and more recently the sensual short Shangri-La.

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This episode was recorded in Pennsylvania and Auckland, and edited by Slim. Our theme music is ‘Vampiros Dancoteque’, by film and television composing trio Moniker. Transcript by Sophie Shin.

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 spiritual sequel to Babe: Pig in the City.

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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 directing horror-comedy and why Ghost gets a “five all round” from Josh.

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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 Poppins, the fear of rating movies in public, and the pleasure of watching F9, in costume, with 34 of your closest friends.