Letterboxd.com is where I keep a diary of all the films I watch, including films I rewatch. They have a very cool year in review feature. I was inspired by this Matt Bowes post about all the media he consumed in 2016, to make this post. I’ll just talk about the movies here, but I love how he listed all the comics, podcasts, etc., too!
So, according to Letterboxd, I saw 222 films in 2016, which includes short films and rewatches. That averages out to over 18 a month, and over 4 a week. Weeks like our visit to the Sundance Film Festival, where we saw 30 films (including shorts) certainly help to bump up that average, but I am an avid movie viewer no matter how you slice it. I just started this blog in April, but I had been posting short reviews on most films to Letterboxd before that.
2016 started with The Hateful Eight (which I didn’t love) and ended with Zootopia, which I did love. There were mostly older films, but I did watch 82 films that were released in 2016. It won’t surprise any of my readers that fully half were films from India, 111 of them.
Interestingly, the actor with the most films I saw was not Shahrukh Khan (who was second with 12), but Nasser with 14! That man is in EVERYTHING!
This year I discovered Telegu cinema megastar Mahesh Babu (9 movies) and Malayalam cinema star Prithviraj. I’ve got a stack of more Prithviraj movies to watch — the man has made so many! I’m amused that Prithviraj’s early film Stop Violence – which I watched without subs! – Letterboxd lists as my “most obscure movie”.
The highest rated (by people on Letterboxd) film I saw in 2016 is Moonlight, which is heading to the Oscars. The lowest rated is Yoga Hosers. Yeah. Have to pretty much agree with that — but Assassin’s Creed is giving it a run for it’s money on that score. Yoga Hosers is just crazy silly (Brat Nazis!) but it was worth it to go to the midnight premiere just to see Kevin Smith.
2016 will always be in my memory, because this was the year that a movie I helped get made premiered at Sundance.
How To Tell You’re A Douchebag is the movie I saw the most times this year, as I attended screenings of the film, and showed it to friends and family. I’m so proud of writer/director Tahir Jetter’s achievement. It was bought by BET and aired this summer. You can watch it on iTunes, Amazon video or Google play now!
Top films from 2016 I saw in Hollywood and Indian cinema coming soon.
Pardesi Reviews 
Nice!
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May I ask a question about Letterboxd? I’ve been using it for awhile to keep track of the Hindi and other Indian films that I have watched. I haven’t had trouble with the Hindi movies but a few of the regional ones don’t have listings. I know that you’ve watched a ton of regional Indian films. Have you come across this issue? It isn’t a huge deal, it just frustrates me that my list is incomplete!
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Ryan, first, do we follow each other on Letterboxd? What’s your username there?
I HAVE come across just this issue. There’s a reason Stop Violence is my most obscure movie, and that’s because there was no entry for it, so I created one. It’s a process, but like you, I want to be as complete as I can! There is a FAQ for how to do it. Basically, you need to enter it into another online database TMDB.com and then enter it to Letterboxd – http://letterboxd.com/about/film-data/
So, I entered Stop Violence on both sites, and that’s why there’s no picture on Letterboxd for the film, etc. But it’s there now!
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Thanks a lot for the info. It’ll be worth the extra steps to have a complete list! My username is blueperiod4- I just followed you. I didn’t realize you could follow other users. I hadn’t really explored the site too much, I’ve just been using it to keep track of Indian films (although it’s a pretty accurate picture of my last year, as I’ve kind of dropped everything else to focus on these wonderful movies). It’s a great tool. I wish that I had kept track of all the movies I’ve ever watched. I have a friend that has that kept many movie diaries over the years, with short little reviews and notes. I wish I had that sort of dedication!
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Ryan, I’m following you back now. You might want to follow also KathyGibson (AcessBollywood reviewer), ShantiSal and Filmlibrarian who are both from Bollywhat.
Also, I noted that you don’t log your films with a date. Just click to review and a box pops up to enter in the date, (default today). You don’t have to write a review — I don’t for everything. If you do that step, then you’ll get your year in review info, etc.
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Thanks for the tip- I wish I would have done that from the beginning! I think I can probably go back and estimate when I watched most of them.
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