This Bloodless Art

Year Two As "OCD Levine" On Letterboxd

Now that I’ve dispensed with the most difficult and time consuming post of the year, I can focus on something easier and sillier. Some of you might remember this from last year. If not, here’s a quick primer:

I signed up for Letterboxd on February 3rd, 2021. Late one night while texting with a friend and my sister, my friend opined we should all be using the film-centric social platform to share horror movie recommendations. I guess he thought it would be a way to track what we were watching without having to ask. It was a novel idea, but in the end I only signed up because I am a troll by nature I wanted to use my account to pester him.

By the way, the horror anthology he produced/wrote/directed is now streaming on Tubi! You can watch it, and then rate it on Letterbox.

So, yeah. Almost exactly one year ago I wrote a post detailing my first year spent taking Letterboxd more seriously. I’ve stopped pestering my friend, and started logging all the movies I watch, while making sure to like or comment on other people’s ratings and reviews.

As it turns out, commenting and liking random people’s Letterboxd accounts does not result in meeting new film nerds and expanding your social (media) circle. I didn’t add a single friend to my network in 2025. I guess when a social cataloging service promotes navel gazing over interaction with fellow humans, that is to be expected. We’re all just shouting into the void why One Battle After Another was either the greatest work of art ever, or an overrated piece of trash.

On a positive note, I watched exactly one more move in 2025 than I did in 2024. 121 movies in total. Pretty cool! Last year I asked if 120 was a normal amount of films to consume in one year. One year later, I’m happy to report, “That’s perfectly average!” Because it is. At least for me.

Anyway, here are some fun facts about the films I watched this year.

---

First, of the “new releases” that hit theaters or streaming in 2025, I watched 41. My favorites? Sinners (4 stars), the aforementioned One Battle After Another (4 stars), Pee Wee As Himself (4 stars), Frankenstein, Weapons, and Eddington (3 stars each).

The first film I watched in 2025: Weekend At Bernie’s

The most recent: Home Alone

Note: I’d just like to pause for a brief moment and say that this exercise is not representative of my usual viewing habits. I watch a movie once almost every three days. A lot of times I’m rewatching movies I’ve seen before. Sometimes I get home from a night out and put something dumb on to help me fall asleep. Yes, these are two of the least “sexy” answers I could possibly give in response to those prompts. But that’s part of the fun, right? RIGHT?!

Shortest film: Dark Star (83 minutes)

Longest film: Heat (170 minutes)

The ten best films I watched in 2024 (my ratings): Don’t Look Now (5 stars), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (4.5 stars), The Parallax View, One Battle After Another, Heat, Wild At Heart, Sorcerer, Friendship, Sinners and two others (4 stars).

The ten worst films I watched in 2024 (my ratings): My Secret Santa (0.5 stars), Heads Of State, The Home, Ghosts Of Mars, A House Of Dynamite, and Megan 2.0 (1 star).

Note: Just like last year, the worst movie I watched in 2025 was a bottom-of-the-barrel Christmas movie I was forced to endure last week. Also, two of the best movies I watched this year were from the early ‘70s and featured Julie Christie. Weird coincidence? Probably not, considering those are two of my favorite movies. I actually watched Don’t Look Now three or four times this year, once with Christine before our trip to Italy, and a few times afterwards to put this post together.

Highest Avg. Rating: No Country For Old Men (4.3 stars on Letterboxed, 3.5 stars from me)

Lowest Avg. Rating: My Secret Santa (2.2 stars on Letterboxed, 0.5 stars from me)

Note: Vindication!

Most Popular: Sinners (2,900,000+ total ratings, 4.1 stars on Letterboxed, 4 stars from me)

Least Popular: Danielson: A Family Movie (192 total ratings, not enough ratings to have an average, 3.5 stars from me)

Note: If you’re unfamiliar with the music and art of Daniel Smith, I highly recommend watching this documentary. Not only will you fall in love with his unique perspective and sheer brilliance, you’ll learn about how Sufjan Stevens ripped him off and is deserving of all the scorn and disdain you can muster.

My most popular genres: Horror 25, Thriller 41, Drama 29, Comedy 27, Crime 36, Action 18, Sci-Fi 20, Documentary 11.

Note: Shockingly I didn’t watch mostly horror films this year. Probably because I cancelled my subscription to Shudder when they raised their prices again. All hail Tubi and Kanopy and all the free or free-with-commercials apps!

---

Two years into this project, I think enough time has passed to call this a success. Sure, I’m mostly keeping a list of all the movies I’ve watched for myself (and only myself). But that doesn’t mean I can’t have fun with it! Now that I’ve broken up with Shudder and signed up for the Criterion Channel’s app, I have a feeling year three is going to be my most pretentious yet.

Dear reader, do you use Letterboxd? If so, tell me about how you interact with the site and its users. Oh, and make sure you add me to your network (and ocdmitropoulos). Trust me, it’ll confuse the hell out of him.

That’s all. I’ll have a mix tape posted before New Year’s Eve for paid subscribers, otherwise happy holidays to all and have a happy and healthy new year.