I completely turn my phone off when I go to the movies. Not just on silent – all the way off. I say this not because I think that I’m better than you, or that by doing so the ghost of Billy Wilder will come back to shake my hand. I consider it one of life’s little luxuries: for at least an hour and 45 minutes, I am entirely unreachable. I keep my phone off for the duration of the credits, too. It feels decadent to stay put as my fellow moviegoers slowly filter out, illuminated only by rolling text.

And, lately, the glow of the Letterboxd app.

Over 26 million people use Letterboxd, a movie-cataloguing app. Like the Criterion Collection or A24, it has become industry shorthand for a certain type of tastemaker who hypes new releases and delights in rediscovering old classics. Users rate and review movies, and the funniest or most illuminating critiques rise to the top of the page, incentivizing cinephiles to put in some effort.

On a recent trip to the movies, the credits had barely started before the man in front of me began typing his review. A few seats over, a couple sat, heads down, jotting down their respective thoughts.

The late film-maker David Lynch had a piece of advice: write down every great idea the exact moment that it comes. If you don’t, it could slip your mind, and, as he put it: “If you forget a good idea, you want to commit suicide.” Lynch was speaking to aspiring film-makers, but the same ethos applies to Letterboxd.

Josh Stern, a 20-year-old student in New York, always writes his reviews from his movie seat.

“If I don’t get my thoughts out quickly once the movie ends, my reviews are much less coherent and articulate,” he said. “It takes some time. I’m pretty slow, and my girlfriend doesn’t like it.”

Stern goes to the movies a lot – 182 times last year – and is on a first-name basis with the theater employees, who sometimes have to kick him out so they can start cleaning the aisles. He thinks it’s fair game to milk the credits: “When you pay for a movie ticket, credits are a part of the movie.”

Letterboxd’s most enthusiastic supporters credit the app with reviving excitement around a battered film industry, where productions are down and unemployment is up. (Letterboxd also boasts the kind of demographics brands covet – its highest cohort of users is between the ages of 18 and 24, followed by 25 to 35.)

Hype begets hype; eagerly awaited movies see a flurry of activity on Letterboxd immediately after the first screenings. The most-liked review of Emerald Fennell’s divisive Wuthering Heights – “emily brontë died of tuberculosis 177 years ago yet this adaptation is still the worst thing that has ever happened to her” – has more thank 50,000 double taps. The Moment, Charli xcx’s fictionalized retelling of Brat summer, produced this comparison to tabloid enemy Taylor Swift’s concert film: “eras tour documentary found dead.”

“It’s a little bit of an addiction,” said Ben Glidden, a 33-year-old New Yorker who works in marketing for women’s sports. He also likes to write reviews during the credits. “Reflecting on what you just saw, immediately after you saw it, helps with the artistic experience. It helps you grasp the key messages of a film. If it makes you feel like a warm hug, that’s not necessarily something you remember five hours down the line.”

Glidden feels most compelled to review a film if it was very good – or very bad. Case in point: he recently sat through the Chris Pratt sci-fi vehicle Mercy. “I was actually so offended by how egregiously bad it was, that I was excited to pull out my phone and give it a half-star review,” he said. (Glidden’s a tougher critic than the Guardian’s film critic Pete Bradshaw, who gave the film three stars, calling it, “ingenious and watchable stuff”.)

Dakota Chester, a 28-year-old New Yorker who works in social media, saw Arco, the Oscar-nominated animated fantasy film, at an Upper West Side theater and stuck around to write the review (“it got five stars”). He’s clocked worse behavior: people taking out their phones to Letterboxd the movie they are currently watching. “That gets on my nerves,” he said.

One of film’s most enduring urban legends recounts a screening of the Lumiere brothers’ 1896 silent short that showed a train pulling into a station. Cinema was in its infancy and – according to this debunked rumor – the shot of a locomotive heading straight toward the camera shocked the crowd so much that people ran away screaming.

A hundred-and-thirty years later, cinema etiquette remains just as bad. No one knows how to act in public any more, especially when the lights go down: viewers take pictures of the screen, bring in smelly food, and, as was the case during Barbenheimer summer, sometimes engage in all-out brawls.

Some have taken to social media to debate the appropriateness of Letterboxding during credits. When one TikTok user posted about her “quiet little moment” writing a review in an AMC theater after the credits ended, movie theater employees chimed in. “Pls do this in your car, as soon as the credits stop rolling we have to clean in there or we get way behind in our scheduled cleans,” one wrote. “Take this to the lobby,” another added.

Courtney Mayhew, a representative for Letterboxd, wrote in a statement: “Anecdotally, we’ve heard from members who’ve struck up conversations after noticing someone nearby on the app, sometimes leading to ongoing friendships or just a great chat about what they’ve just watched. That impulse to get your thoughts down while they’re fresh is something we understand – it’s part of the ritual for many people … And obviously, phones out during the actual film is still a cardinal sin – we’re not monsters.”

Other Letterboxd users like to let a film marinate before posting. Irene Vasquez is a 22-year-old film student who joined Letterboxd in 2018 and credits the app for helping her take movies more seriously.

“As I’ve seen it get more popular, it’s gamified movies for people, and it feels like everyone’s in competition to watch as many movies as possible,” she said. “I get frustrated with all the people who pull out their phones immediately to rate films, because I really value sitting with a movie and letting it sink in. I treasure that experience.”

Professional critics used to be arbiters of taste, but in a fractured, post-Gene Siskel or Pauline Kael media ecosystem, Letterboxd reviews probably do more to get young people talking to each other about films than any New York Times writeup could. Raphael Martinez, 43, who manages and programs for a movie theater in Chicago that caters to a “pretty hardcore” art-house crowd, is heartened by the app’s most immediate reviewers. “Within 20 minutes of the movie ending, we have a handful of advertisements on Letterboxd for the movie,” he said. “It helps get people to the theater and gauges community reaction to what we show.”

In the 2010s, Marvel movies conditioned millennials to stay for post-credit scenes offering breadcrumbs or plot reveals for future films in the universe. Martinez found that much more annoying than the cinephiles who stay to get their thoughts down. “People weren’t doing anything, they would just wait around,” he said. “Now, people are hanging out, engaging, and it’s more of a vibe, as opposed to simply consuming.”

When the pandemic hit, and reality settled in that life would be isolated and mostly inside, Grammy winner Anderson .Paak found himself on the outside looking in, in a way he didn’t anticipate. “I was the odd man out. My son was 8, and BTS took over the whole house,” .Paak explained in an interview with The Times at his WeHo lounge, Andy’s. “It was a K-pop storm. Before that, me and my son were bonding off of my music.”

.Paak’s son, Soul Rasheed, and his now ex-wife originally from Korea, Jaylyn Chang, had become obsessed with K-pop alongside much of America, which reminded .Paak of the intensity of Beatlemania. Black American music influenced the birth of a new style, which formed and expanded across oceans, then returned to the U.S. and exploded. This effect in the .Paak household was palpable, causing Soul and Chang to deeply bond in a new way. .Paak himself, as a soul, R&B and hip-hop aficionado, was tapped into the source, but not the reinterpreted subject. So he had to find a way in.

Soul, at the time, like many 8-year-olds, had also become obsessed with becoming a YouTuber. Besides .Paak’s music, the father-and-son duo had also previously connected over humor, so .Paak started there. They began with funny skits and eventually fused them with BTS dances. Soon, there were even videos featuring them comedically educating each other about their individual music tastes. “I loved it,” .Paak recalled, getting lost in the memory. “I was getting to know him more, and he was getting to know me. My mom would always say, ‘It’s one thing for your kids to love you, but it’s another to share things you’re interested in.’ It wasn’t like I was being Anderson .Paak, I was just Dad.”

Through this exploration and the realization of a potential continued familial bond, a story idea emerged, then a treatment for a K-pop-centered film that .Paak would direct and he and Soul would both star in. .Paak then began directing a slew of music videos as the pandemic began to fade, building a portfolio and gaining experience in the medium. But he could start to sense Soul’s interest fading as time passed. After a few failed pitch attempts, .Paak urgently enlisted the help of one of his oldest friends and fellow entertainer, Jonnie “Dumbfoundead” Park, who brought .Paak and the idea to Stampede Ventures.

“The pitch was from an idea that Anderson had, and [to introduce it], we showed them this TikTok that he had with his son,” Park recalled over Zoom. “Anderson was like, ‘Do you know anything about BET, son?’ And [Soul] was like, ‘No, but I know BTS.’ Then they were just going back and forth, arguing about BET and BTS. That was literally the deck, [us saying] we would take that energy and put it into a two-hour film. They loved it. As soon as we walked out of the office, Anderson looked over like, ‘Are we greenlit?!’ They just understood it, the whole intergenerational, intercultural element of Black and Korean.” Stampede combined forces on the project with Live Nation Studios and .Paak’s debut feature “K-Pops!” was off to the races.

It’s important to note that .Paak is himself Black and Korean. His mother was adopted from Korea by a SoCal Black American military family and .Paak’s father was also a Black military officer. Thus, while his mother was born in Korea, he was raised almost entirely within a Black cultural space. .Paak didn’t experience much direct exposure to Korean culture until his 20s, when he met Chang at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. As an immigrant directly from Korea, Chang showed him the fortitude of structure amid her community. He was also taken by their inherent family value system. “In Korean households, you stay in the house until you get older so you can take care of your parents, and your parents can help take care of the kids,” .Paak explained. “There’s an infrastructure that’s worked out. Also, Korean food is important, as is learning the language. I was drawn to that. My son didn’t eat anything outside of Korean food for so long, and he’s just now getting into tacos.”

.Paak then further explored his Korean side through a burgeoning friendship with Park, which happened a bit later, after Chang had already given birth to Soul. Park introduced .Paak to K-town-based Korean culture through their shared music scene. “The people that came from K-town had a lot of Latino and Black influences as well,” .Paak remembered. “There was a little more of a melting pot, and it was more urban. But in a similarly communal way [to Koreans from Korea], they were all hanging out in K-town with other Korean friends. They’d drink soju, and go to after-hours where you had to have somebody Korean with you.”

While .Paak had some opportunities in adulthood to grasp a bit of his Korean heritage, in “K-Pops!,” through his main character BJ, he also got to actualize what his mother may have missed. In the film, BJ, a failed karaoke bar R&B musician, gets a lucky chance to go to Korea and be the drummer for a popular K-pop competition series. There, he bumps into his estranged ex-girlfriend’s son, Tae Young (played by Soul), who is competing on the show. He then finds out that the kid is his. While a messy transition ensues, BJ and Tae Young eventually get to galavant around Korea and work together to try to win the competition. Through this exploration, BJ finds out he can thrive in Korea while still holding onto his Blackness. .Paak’s mother’s dive back into her roots had a different result. “My mom went abroad and spent a year in Korea, but when she went there, she just didn’t like it,” .Paak explained. “In the movie, initially, BJ doesn’t really have any connection to his Korean side and doesn’t really care to know, but then he finds a bridge.” That bridge is music.

Actor Yvette Nicole Brown, who in “K-Pops!” plays BJ’s mother, proclaimed over Zoom that, “Everything about the film and the music in it is Blasian, every culture is celebrated and massaged and made into something beautiful.” .Paak made a concerted, intentional effort to explore both the Black and Korean sides of K-pop in two scenes.

The first is an early breakdown initiated by Soul’s character, Tae Young, who explains the structured roles of a K-pop group, which may be fun for superfans and educational for laypeople to the genre. The next is a winding presentation by BJ to Tae Young about the influence of Motown groups like the Jackson 5 and boy bands like New Edition on the momentum of K-pop’s rise. It’s particularly poignant because it is all shot at a record store on the streets of Korea, where .Paak explained he actually found the records he was referencing. “There’s nothing wrong with people doing their interpretation of Black music, as long as you pay homage and as long as you respect it and take care of it,” .Paak declared. “Because [if you do], then they’ll take care of you, but the moment you don’t, you’ll see what happens … I wanted to explain that history because that’s how I saw it.”

Real-life father and son, Anderson .Paak, left, and Soul Rasheed, co-star in “K-Pops!”

(Jake Giles Netter)

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”K-Pops!” has as much of who .Paak and Soul are as father and son as he could fit in. There are appearances by legacy Black artists like Earth, Wind & Fire, as well as K-pop stars like Vernon from Seventeen. There are original songs co-written and co-produced by .Paak and musician Dem Jointz, that feature K-pop fused with soul and funk, one of which Tae Young performs as his finale competition number (soundtrack arriving soon). The film was shot in both L.A. and Korea and provided ample time for bonding (especially during scenes filled with off-the-cuff humor) that .Paak envisioned from the beginning. Yet still, at the time they were about to shoot, .Paak almost couldn’t get Soul on board because he had turned 11 and wasn’t as into K-pop or acting comedically anymore; he insisted he was instead “into Slipknot.”

The duo did find their footing, though, and executed a winding story that centers on their connection. As a burgeoning teenager in 2024, Soul went with his father to the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, along with a plethora of Korean relatives from his mom’s side. .Paak anxiously awaited their full reaction to the culmination of his quest for a deeper bond.

“Everybody really enjoyed it,” .Paak remembered, relieved. “[Soul] was like, ‘I’m proud of you, Dad.’ I asked him, ‘You think you would ever do part two?’ He was like, ‘Nah, I don’t think acting is my passion, but I’ll never forget those moments … You know what? On second thought, it depends on the script.’ But I think he’s really proud of it. I think it’s something like, when he gets older, he’ll see how special it is as well. But yeah, he didn’t say it’s cringe.”

“K-Pops!” has its L.A. premiere on Tuesday and debuts in select theaters Friday.

Claiming to be from the future, a man takes hostages at a Los Angeles diner to recruit unlikely heroes to help him save the world. The newest movie from director Gore Verbinski is not only one of the best of the year so far, but it is also one of the most fun you will have in a theatre in recent memory. 

There is honestly so much to say about this movie, but saying too much would definitely spoil things, and this is the type of movie you want to go in blind if you could. Having said that, this is going to be a shorter review. Still, there are plenty of things to acknowledge about this one.  We have seen so many movies showing us a future where technology takes over the world. That is nothing new. However, the well-written script, amazing cast of characters, and the current topic of AI really set this film apart from the rest. 

Sam Rockwell is excellent as the lead character from the future looking for a group of civilians to help save the world. The action starts right away as we realize that this guy has tried to save the world from AI several times with a different group each time, and failing each time. He has yet to find the perfect combination of help. Our cast of characters this time around includes  Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Juno Temple, and Haley Lu Richardson. Everyone is so good in their roles, specifically Richardson and Temple, proving that they can handle the serious moments as well as the more comedic ones. 

How Does it Make You Feel?

There are several different ways to review or critique a movie. Some movies get just about everything right from a technical angle, but still won’t please folks. Some movies get everything wrong from a technical aspect, and it will be someone’s favorite thing. When I review films, I try to be 50/50 to give them a fair chance. Is the movie well-made, and does it leave me feeling anything? While many movies lean more one way than the other, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die manages to please on all accounts. 

The movie is shot well with tons of amazing set pieces. The characters are likeable and developed enough that you truly care about them, and the script is so original that it truly left me not knowing where the movie was going next. Verbinski had previously directed Pirates of the Caribbean and The Ring: two completely different movies and tones, but both very successful. Verbinski really shows his range in this new movie. He manages to capture both tones of horror and comedy in this film perfectly while sprinkling in a few other ones as well. 

The movie is so successful at making you laugh one moment, then leaving you uncomfortable and on the edge of your seat in the next. I will not spoil anything, but there are a couple of scenes in this movie that, if they were in another film, they just wouldn’t work. They are either too weird or too controversial. Current topics in real life are played for satire in this film, and these scenes pack a punch for sure. 

The movie is also very smart in how it tackles the idea of AI. The goal of this movie isn’t to completely erase technology or the use of AI. The movie is smart enough to know that AI is already here to stay, whether people like it or not. The heroes are not here to destroy it, but rather find a way to control it responsibly so that we have a world where people can be aware of what is reality and what isn’t. This was such an intelligent and fascinating way to handle things.

Overall

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is the best movie I have seen so far this year and probably the most entertained I have been at the movies in some time. It is an original Sci Fi comedy that has a lot to say without being preachy. It is truly a trip that feels like an old-school adventure film full of rich characters and excitement. It is truly a shame that this movie hasn’t received more screenings, but if there is one local to you, you owe it to yourself to check it out.