cant sleep (4:02 am)
idk...letterboxd
misc
written on 2024-12-27
in an effort to divert my restlessness away from incessant scrolling and more towards research and wonder i have spent a lot of my holiday stalking people on the internet. not seriously, but more just lurking on people's posted content and taking big sips from their fountains anonymously. someones blog i found today (via a review of theirs i had liked on letterboxd -> their letterboxd profile -> the blog linked to their letterboxd profile); i read one of their entries from 2023 (at this point of time i took a break to reread it and debated linking it to my blog. tying our blogs together with little string but theyre facing away from me. isn't that a little funny and perhaps intimate?? i shall not because i feel a bit meek) and i was struck by how different people's voices can be. it reminded me i need, want to read more in the new year. find new alchemizations (?lol?) of words and phrases. play more with language. sometimes i notice myself speaking more 'intellectually' with certain ppl and it makes me stop and wonder who that person is. probably the person who managed to get a college degree...
during my letterboxd lurking session i went on several people's pages and skimmed through with varying degrees of comprehensiveness. since my favorite method of blog posting is making a list i will compose one below:
- friends I've made while in Chicago: i am grouping them together because it doesn't feel necessary to really separate them out here (even tho i appreciate them and if you read this it's not in a way where you're not important to me!) the usage ranges (logging movies, rating them <-> leaving reviews, tagging/liking peoples reviews, making lists etc.) and it's always nice to see where people's tastes fall. a lot more noir/old Hollywood/westerns than i expected, which is cool and just reminded me how much of an Asian film snob i am. you can really tell who's funny irl from this sample set. a highlight: someone's bio that says 'Isn't it exciting to realize that you know better? Have faith in your own bad taste.' this was deeply inspiring to me.
- someone from my studio who mentioned offhandedly they made a letterboxd recently (that was like two months ago) and i asked about it but hadn't followed them then. well they got my follow today, congrats! not many reviews/logs here. i'm guessing that they made an account at the request of a friend and lost momentum after 5 movies, or perhaps they stopped watching movies after thanksgiving break? i'll ask another time. highlight from this one: a moving review that mentions the unique and thrilling experience of watching (gay, erotic) movies on the plane. and a three star rating for said movie.
- friend of ^ person, who i think asked them to make a letterboxd. this person is Prolific (100+ movies this year!) and watches a fair mix of new releases/random older movies. lot of quippy reviews, some cryptic, some a bit moving, all one liners. I've had two interactions with this person and they seem chill. wonder when i'll see them around next...will they notice i followed them on letterboxd? hee hee
- an old fling that i have fond and funny memories of. i looked up their letterboxd (they had told me on our first or second date and i remembered) and to my surprise discovered they had put out a short film that had been screened at a local festival recently. what a delight -- it felt familiar like they had told me about it two years ago back when it was still an idea. i added it to my watchlist and then distantly wondered what would happen if they could see that + link my profile to me. i got a bit lost in the fantasy...would they reach out to me (they had previously -- out of the blue -- another fond and sweet memory)? would they let me see their short film? could we be friends? anyway -- their letterboxd profile. it's the funniest out of all the above, 5 stars for every movie and a silly deadpan oneliner review for each. (editorial note: just went back on the profile to confirm it was funny and it was not as funny the second time around. but i still giggled out loud for a few of them, which is more than i can say for a good majority of letterboxd reviews unfortunately.) it reminded me that i don't remember finding them incredibly funny when we briefly dated but rather striking me as the type of person who's a big hit on the internet but kind of awkward and endearing in real life.
i can hear my dad downstairs washing the dishes. i desperately need a neck massage as well as a mobility routine. good night (hopefully), signed 5:12am with a handful of popcorn. i will watch either the taste of things (2024) or a best movies of xxxx compilation now...