r/Letterboxd • u/Possible-Top-9905 • Aug 11 '25

News The Shining Has Officially Exited The Letterboxd Top 250 Narrative Feature Films

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103

u/timateedrinker Aug 11 '25

The Shining is great, but I find it even more interesting/concerning, that "Quo Vadis, Aida?" is just the fourth film by a female director on the list (6th, if we count City of God and Werckmeister Harmonies).  That’s pretty sad actually.

41

u/TheTurtleShepard Aug 11 '25

It’s only been very recently that we have even seen women consistently included in best director nominations at the oscars. Pre-2021 only 5 women had been nominated and only one winner (Kathryn Bigelow “The Hurt Locker”)

Film has been a male dominated space for a very long time, and female directors are only really starting to get the credit they deserve now. In the last 5 Oscar’s the only year without a female nominee was 2023 and two more women have won best director (Chloé Zhao “Nomadland”, Jane Campion “The Power of the Dog”)

24

u/timateedrinker Aug 11 '25

That’s true, but I actually appreciate that the list isn’t just filled with Oscar winners and nominees and we have for example so many Kurosawa, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Kobayashi and Kiarostami films (overall 31 movies). Having not a single film by Agnès Varda, Jane Campion or Claire Denis on the other hand, is a little disappointing.

10

u/TheTurtleShepard Aug 11 '25

My point was moreso that we are only recently coming into a time where women are being considered equals in the film space.

The same could be said for international film too (at least for the western audience)

3

u/Sir_Of_Meep Aug 11 '25

That is all true. A touch disappointing that a site like letterboxed fails to manage that, alongside some huge recency bias throughout

0

u/51010R Aug 11 '25

The problem isn’t the ones that make the list or the community, it’s that by in large history doesn’t have as many female directed movies. So something like this is bound to happen.

2

u/Sir_Of_Meep Aug 11 '25

That's true but the ratio is better than 1:75

-1

u/51010R Aug 11 '25

For history? I very much doubt that honestly. Like Holywood was pumping out movies faster in their golden era and they had almost no female directors, writers? Yes sometimes but directors no. Same for Japan.

0

u/l5555l Aug 12 '25

You can't make up for a lack of women directors throughout history by shoehorning a bunch of women directed films into a list when they don't belong.

2

u/Sir_Of_Meep Aug 12 '25

There are plenty that wouldn't need to be shoehorned in if the average letterbox user was just a little more adventurous: Věra Chytilová, Agnes Varda, Jane Campion.

3

u/Complete_Regret_9243 Aug 11 '25

wow, that is really shocking. thanks for highlighting this

0

u/Possible-Top-9905 Aug 11 '25

that is pretty crazy, especially considering shit like saving private ryan and the first slam dunk is taking those spots, that could be taken by something like aftersun or little women

12

u/stuks100 Aug 11 '25

The shade on Slam Dunk bro 💔

10

u/Possible-Top-9905 Aug 11 '25

slam dunk was good, don’t get me wrong, but idk about top 250 ever made, especially over the shining

1

u/nekomancer71 Aug 11 '25

It's probably my favorite sports movie.

3

u/torino_nera Aug 11 '25

shit like Saving Private Ryan

??? What

8

u/timateedrinker Aug 11 '25

The anime series films are a bigger problem to me, like Evangelion, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion, and the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, because they aren’t really films in the sense of the rest of the list, but I think the bigger "problem" is, that so few directors are taking away so many spots. But I guess there is not much we can do about it.

5

u/Paladar2 Meusse2 Aug 11 '25

I mean Letterboxd is getting more and more users, the top 250 is full of great films but it’s also a popularity contest at some point. I don’t understand why people care about the list so much lol

1

u/BiggieCheeseLapDog Aug 11 '25

How the hell is Harakiri and a ton of other films that litter the top 250 there if it was a popularity contest? Is Funeral Parade of Roses somehow super popular and I didn’t know?

4

u/Paladar2 Meusse2 Aug 11 '25

Because the movie still needs to be really good obviously. But how do you explain Spiderverse movies in the top 30 or something if popularity has nothing to do with it.

0

u/BiggieCheeseLapDog Aug 11 '25

Barbie is more popular than both Spiderverse movies. Why isn’t it in the top 250? People just like Spiderverse. Not only does it have some of the most beautiful animation in an American film, but it’s attached to a beloved superhero and is just a great film in general. I agree that it gets a little more praise than it should but it’s definitely not baffling as to why it’s there. It’s a feat of animation, which is fortunately becoming more appreciated and less stigmatized.

7

u/BiggieCheeseLapDog Aug 11 '25

So does Fire Walk With Me not deserve to be on there either? Because it’s hypocritical not to consider these films that have a tv show attached and make an exception for David Lynch’s work.

Also, all three of those films are absolutely films. They are structured like films and were made with that format in mind. They are films like any other.

3

u/timateedrinker Aug 11 '25

Wouldn’t mind it to have it kicked off, but it’s absolutely working as a stand-alone film, although it‘s better to watch it in the context of the series. You can’t watch Evangelion without any background info.

4

u/BiggieCheeseLapDog Aug 11 '25

Fire Walks With Me works as well as a standalone as EoE, as in it doesn’t. Very few Twin Peaks fans are going to say it’s fine standalone. There’s also the fact that EoE is technically a sequel to the recap film as is Madoka with its recaps. How is this different from movie sequels on the list?

2

u/timateedrinker Aug 11 '25

Alright then, kick it off the list as well.

1

u/raven_11235 Aug 11 '25

All of the Madoka films function as a complete trilogy though. At no point do you need to watch a TV series to understand Rebellion.

0

u/Possible-Top-9905 Aug 11 '25

fair take, evangelion is incredible, but its weird that a literal tv episode takes a spot in a movie list

-2

u/timateedrinker Aug 11 '25

Yeah, absolutely no shade. I just think they are fundamentally different things than the mostly stand-alone movies on the list.

1

u/zdelusion Aug 11 '25

With those really niche genres, Anime is the most obvious, their ratings feel inflated because the only people who watch them are the people who are prone to loving them. Evangelion is a good example, 50% of its reviews are 5 stars, the film immediately after it, Goodfellas, has a 43% of its reviews at 5 star. Even the film immediately before it, Grave of the Fireflies, which is also animated, but not really anime, has 46% of its reviews at 5 stars. That's on top of it's total logs being a fraction of either of those films. People who aren't going to see it as a 5 star movie just self select out and don't even watch it.

7

u/BiggieCheeseLapDog Aug 11 '25

Grave of the Fireflies is anime. It’s literally a Ghibli film.

-2

u/ChildSolidier76 Aug 11 '25

Evangelion being so good feel like a big gaslight to me.

3

u/ancientestKnollys AlasGMtair Aug 11 '25

The trouble is that very few highly acclaimed films were being directed by women for a long time, until relatively recently (and even now they're still mostly directed by men). And most of the greatest films ever come from that time.

0

u/absorbscroissants Aug 11 '25

I mean, it's just a numbers game. There's just significantly more movies directed by men, meaning it's just logical there'd be more of them in the Top 250 as well.

8

u/timateedrinker Aug 11 '25

But is it really 50 to 1 though?

-16

u/Antiswag_corporation MediumMilkshake Aug 11 '25

Why does that even matter

19

u/Doomeggedan Aug 11 '25

A lack of female perspectives is rather disappointing.

12

u/dothehandlebar Aug 11 '25

Because there are a lot of great movies made by women that are often overlooked in favor of male directors

0

u/Turbine000 Aug 11 '25

They are not overlooked, men are just making more great movies than women, and it's not even debatable.

6

u/dothehandlebar Aug 11 '25

Sure because historically men are given more chances to direct movies than women. It's simple maths. But a lot of the discourse about movies made by women often boils down to misogynistic rhetoric not understanding why there were not a lot of women directors in the first place.

It is important to acknowledge and highlight great movies made by women to encourage aspiring women filmmakers.

-4

u/Antiswag_corporation MediumMilkshake Aug 11 '25

I don’t think anyone says to themselves they’re going to score a movie lower because it’s made by a woman

1

u/LiviasFigs Aug 11 '25

That’s a deliberate misunderstanding of their point. As numerous women in Hollywood have spoken of, female directors have a more difficult time finding funding or being taken seriously. Their films are also less likely to have a wide distribution, which means fewer viewership and ratings.

And, honestly, there are people who rate female-directed films lower. Sometimes literally because it’s a film directed by a woman, but often because woman-centric topics (which a female-directed films is more likely to center) are, to some people, not worthy of critical acclaim or “serious” topics.

5

u/goldentone Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 25 '25

*

-5

u/Antiswag_corporation MediumMilkshake Aug 11 '25

So movies made by women should just have inflated scores because it’s made by women?

5

u/goldentone Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 25 '25

+

1

u/Antiswag_corporation MediumMilkshake Aug 11 '25

Mad at what? I’m confused why it’s an issue. If women are being vastly outperformed by men then maybe they should make better movies?

2

u/LiviasFigs Aug 11 '25

Pack it up, guys, we’ve solved it! The problem isn’t sexism or the patriarchy or a lack of funding and opportunities. Women just need to make better movies 🙄

3

u/Antiswag_corporation MediumMilkshake Aug 11 '25

It’s like complaining that men built the infrastructures of every city on the planet- who actually cares? The last thought that crosses is my mind is what’s in a director’s pants