There’s a Letterboxd for that. Movie website Letterboxd has spawned a host of copycats.

A website or online service isn’t truly a phenomenon until it spawns a multitude of copycats.
Take Letterboxd, the popular movie website. Letterboxd describes itself as “a global social network for grass-roots film discussion and discovery.”
Letterboxd users share their opinions on movies they’ve seen, create lists and collections of films, and find and follow fellow movie lovers. The website launched in October 2011. And earlier this month, Canadian investment firm Tiny bought a majority stake in Letterboxd. (See articles by Variety and the New York Times.)
Others have taken notice of the success Letterboxd has had and have launched similar websites for other interests.
A quick search of Google shows a host of copycats. There’s a Letterboxd for video games (Backloggd), TV shows (Serialzd), anime (AniList) and music (Musicboard). There’s even a Letterboxed for beer (Untappd).
I’m sure there are many more similar websites out there.
One of the limitations of Letterboxd is that it doesn’t cover TV series or miniseries. That’s limiting in a world where the lines between movies and TV shows are blurring. Letterboxd has plans to add TV content at some point.
Ironically, Letterboxd says it’s been called “Goodreads for movies.” Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Amazon.com bought Goodreads in March 2013.

X, aka Twitter, accounts fighting the woke movement

The woke movement and the backlash to it have been a major story in American politics. Progressive liberals have been promoting special rights and considerations for certain groups of sensitive individuals, demanding changes to society and even language to accommodate them.
Woke groups advocate for biological males, aka trans women, to play in women’s sports. They are promoting gender affirmation surgery, aka sex change operations, for juveniles. They are pushing pornographic books to school kids and say efforts to stop them amount to book banning. They also are bringing school kids to provocative drag queen shows.
They have pushed climate change hysteria and policies that are soft on crime, weak on immigration and voter fraud. They espouse socialist ideals while ignoring the overwhelmingly negative consequences of socialism worldwide. They also are pushing for separate spaces for racial minority groups in schools, ironically bringing back segregation. The list goes on and on.
These groups do not believe in free speech. They try to prevent opposing views through violent protests, shouting at speakers and claiming a “hate speech” exemption to the First Amendment when there is none.
Thankfully, “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk has allowed anti-woke speakers to have a forum on X, formerly Twitter. Woke speakers are on the platform too, but at least there is a balance and a conversation.
Some of the most interesting and entertaining anti-woke accounts are The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee), End Wokeness (@EndWokeness), Wokely Correct Comics (@WokelyCorrect), Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) and Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath).
High-profile anti-woke pundits and commentators on X include Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly), James Woods (@RealJamesWoods), Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog), Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok), Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10), John Stossel (@JohnStossel), Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) and Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar).
Those are just a few of the people fighting the good fight.

Photos: Defiant L’s and Wokely Correct Comics.

Sexy Halloween costumes in 2023 to be dominated by ‘Barbie’

America leads the world in sexy Halloween costumes. U-S-A! U-S-A!
This year, the hit movie “Barbie” is influencing a lot of Halloween costumes for adults. A check of the Halloween costumes on Yandy.com shows a lot of outfits inspired by the movie, which is based on Mattel’s doll family.
For the ladies, there’s the “Genuine Doll Costume,” “Retro Rollerblade Doll Costume” and “Western Star Costume.” Barbie is trademarked, hence the clever use of the word “doll.”
For men wanting to dress up as Ken, there is the “Mr. Malibu Costume,” “Men’s Retro Rollerblade Stud Costume” and “Men’s Mojo Dojo Faux Fur Coat.”
And for those weirdos who want to dress as Ken’s friend Allan, you’re on your own.

Shirley Temple movies are missing or hard to find online

I took an interest in child actress Shirley Temple recently after receiving an antique doll in her likeness. Despite being a movie fan, I had never seen any of her movies.
Fortunately, before Netflix’s DVD service ended last month, I rented two of her movies “Wee Willie Winkie” (1937) and “The Little Princess” (1939). The DVD service had listed 10 of her movies in its inventory.
Temple appeared in 44 feature-length motion pictures from 1932 through 1949, according to Wikipedia. Of those, 13 are not available in any form online, either from streaming services or for digital rental or purchase, according to JustWatch and Reelgood.
Also, 19 of the Shirley Temple movies are only available for digital rental or purchase.
The remaining 12 movies are available for streaming from mostly smaller subscription video services such as Indieflix and Flixfling.
She also made numerous short films, including a series of Baby Burlesks. I don’t know the status of their availability.

Photo: Movie poster for “The Little Princess” (1939).