Extremely Critical Belgian’s review published on Letterboxd:
Warning: This is a LOOONG update
On July 3rd 2021, I went on my computer and decided to make an account on this strange little platform called Letterboxd. It was just a place to use as a journal and set my watchlist, but what I didn’t know was that I was about to go through an amazing adventure, and be able to document one of the most experimental and wildest chapters of my life. That was one year ago, and right now I don't even know where to begin with this retrospective.
- I’ve met tons of people who were willing to listen to what I had to say, in exchange that I would do the same thing through the click of a button.
- I was able to get feedback on my own work and projects from people outside my personal friend group.
- I watched over 100 movies, including the single worst thing I ever layed my eyes on.
- My two most popular reviews to date have currently earned around 50 likes, and I still have no idea what decides this.
- I watched movies that have made me feel sick to my stomach, movies that have made me cry or give me more stress than a guy who’s about to get his first kiss, movies that made me want to break through the screen out of pure anger and frustration, and one movie that literally made me feel like I was drunk.
- It took me MONTHS to recover and log every movie I had seen through the course of my whole life, and I keep finding out to my utter shock and dismay that I still haven’t gotten there yet.
- I have made myself go insane by attempting to watch a new movie every day for a month.
- I have said the title Baby Driver more times than I have mentioned my own name.
(I’d like to dare everyone who started following me by the time my profile became the way it is now, to figure out what it is)
- I gained more followers in January than I did throughout the entirity of 2021.
- I got 3 equally active followers who all have a profile picture of a cat for some reason.
- I have somehow never explained why How To Train Your Dragon is a timeless masterpiece.
- I started a verbal war about Madagascar 2 that will probably never end.
- I changed my profile's name twice, one of them shamefully terrible, and stole my profile picture from someone else.
- I became overly obsessive with Squid Game for a short while.
- I made a list of hot takes larger than Jacksfilm's forehead, and now my standard for what I consider and actually great movie/show has become the question that keeps my followers up at night.
- I had an embarrassing conversation under a Trainspotting review.
- My favorite critic responded to one of my comments for the first time, and it was because I made a fuck up by asking him to watch a film he had already watched.
Fun fact: This was only one week before he permanently shut down the comments under his reviews. Something tells me it has something to do with that.
- My favorite movie continues to remain a secret, although I've debated about revealing it on SO MANY occasions.
About that last one: Are you guys actually interested? Maybe I’m making too much of a big deal out of it, and I don’t know whether it may be worth finally letting it out. You’ve proven that I can love whatever I want and I think my favorite thing on this whole planet may be worth showing. Let me know what you think.
None of this would’ve been possible without any of your help! I may get my occasional joke response that I have shit taste or whatever, but at the end of the day Letterboxd has become favorite social media platform. It’s like the only place on the internet you can go to these days to talk about your opinions without hordes of faux-intellectuals raising their pitchforks. I don’t want to say that there are specific profiles linked to what mine would eventually become, but then I’d be lying to myself. So here are the ones that I’d like to give a special thanks:
First, I’d like to thank GunnarTheDude. He’s the person that made me so active on this platform and he was ALWAYS there to give a like on almost every review I made. It baffles me that someone can be so nice and have such a great passion for something at the age of 14 (and now 15). It’s always like you’re giving a like or posting a comment with every second you’re here, how do you do that?!
P.S. My apologies for that situation from last week.
Next I would like to thank Wolve and Joseph. While they definitely don’t appear under my reviews quite as often, they were the first people I was really able to chat with through our comments.
Joseph, never stop praising Edgar Wright!
Next, I would like to thank dayness. I’ve always seen him a bit as a rival, but in a fun way. Someone who I disagree with all the time and seems to give high ratings to the stupidest of products, but is a ton of fun to argue with. His sense of humor is so meta and I adore that.
And last but not least, I would like to thank everyone else who I’d love to mention if that didn’t make this list too long. Salty27 for his really good sense of humor, MovieGuy for being so incredibly active in the only month or two he’s been following me, Mattboy23 for liking almost everything I’ve written since he first came to me, the list goes on!
An extra special thanks to Schaffrillas, who was the exact reason I came here in the first place, but most of you already know that. It’s been a great privilege to be able to get a sneak peak of future reviews. I have no idea where one can find such an amazing sense of humor.
But as much as I'm trying to show respect right now, I'm not going to pretend like I was the friendliest person here. I’ve said some shitty stuff and not respected people’s opinions in the past and it’s probably going to happen again. Communicating through text has never been my strongest suit and sometimes I can take things the wrong way or get too defensive for no reason. I try to avoid this and I try to be a better person the same way I’m trying to be a better writer. I annoyingly rewrite my reviews ALL THE TIME and make constant typos, but I feel that I’m getting better with every entry. And the more I watch, the better of an artist I become myself, and I can thank film school for giving me the opportunity to test myself.
For those wondering how my graduation went this Wednesday: It was awesome!
My report card had amazing results and I got to say goodbye to all my teachers and all the other students. When I approached my video teacher, he told me something that still sits at the back of my mind. During the meeting where they were all looking through the students’ report cards debating about whether or not they would graduate, there was one student who they didn’t even have to talk about. The moment his name got called out, they all started applauding and instantly moved on to the next one. That student was me.
After that, I went to a party at someone’s home. It wasn't anything loud, it was mostly quiet and a place to have a nice chat with friends, but someone had the brilliant idea of giving me a bottle of Smirnoff Ice, and I got drunk. Like, REALLY drunk. What a night that was.
If there is one major takeaway from this journey, it's that you're not always going to agree with everyone on everything, but you only get the chance to fully embrace that fact and be able to learn from it once you find a way to put it to words and let it be heard by people who respect that, as it should be. Everyone has different tastes and preferences, and yours have definitely had an impact on shaping my own in a way. You guys have made my watchlist expand from a 3 page Word document to a list of almost 2,000 movies!!! You were here to make a wish of mine come true. I always wanted to find a place where my voice could be heard. A place where newcomers actually stand a chance to get attention, and you gave me that.
Love y’all! See you in my next review when I talk about either Knives Out or go through the Harry Potter franchise for the first time.
