Contains spoilers for ‘She’s the Man,’ ‘Anyone but You,’ and ‘KPop Demon Hunters’

It started over the summer. At internship orientation, some of my fellow new recruits were talking about Letterboxd, going through their profiles and comparing the films that they’d seen and the reviews that they’d given them. I happily joined in, as I know a lot about movies, and I have a lot of movie opinions. “You should get Letterboxd, too, Sarah,” someone suggested, after I’d gotten a good look at the app. I’d always considered it, but for some reason I’d never pulled the trigger. That night, I downloaded Letterboxd, and I ranked my first movie, “Fight Club.”

I got some blowback early on, first for my review of “Superman” (2025) (I gave it one star, and my straightforward explanation was “This movie made me feel absolutely nothing”), but I’ve always taken the criticism in stride. Sometimes people just disagree fundamentally on what makes a good movie and which movies live up to those expectations.

I love Letterboxd specifically for this reason, as it allows me to share my (admittedly sometimes controversial) takes and engage with friends on the platform to see how my opinions stack up. It leads to interesting conversations and debates and often makes you think more critically about a film. Plus, coming up with a witty, yet brief review of every movie that I see has slowly become a favorite pastime of mine.

However, little did I know that one of those same friends whom I had been engaging in fun, silly banter with about my Letterboxd reviews would decide to BETRAY ME, putting my ratings out in the world without giving them the proper context or asking for clarification. I am speaking, of course, about Jenna’s article from late last semester entitled “Using Letterboxd to Ruin My Friendships.” Yes, dear reader, I was the unnamed “friend” whom Jenna sniped repeatedly without warning.

As soon as I read Jenna’s article, I knew that I had to respond and share my own perspective. I started drafting this piece that very day, though of course with exam season and the holidays it took me a minute before I was able to finalize my thoughts. What I am going to do is go through my supposedly “unthinkable” ratings that Jenna saw fit to critique and explain why I made the choices that I did. Yes, I am putting our wonderful Editor-in-Chief on blast, and no, I do not have any qualms about doing so. Friendship be damned; you come for my film hot takes, you come for me!

 

She’s the Man – ★

Besides Amanda Bynes’ performance, there is essentially nothing to like here. Naturally, as an adaptation of a Shakespearean comedy (“Twelfth Night,” to be precise) the plot is ridiculously contrived and needlessly complicated. Bynes plays Viola, whose fraternal twin brother Sebastian (James Kirk) wants to play hooky for a few weeks instead of heading to his new boarding school, Illyria Prep. Wanting to get back at her ex-boyfriend—who insists that girls can’t play soccer—Viola assumes Sebastian’s identity, moving into his dorm and joining the Illyria boys soccer team while he’s awol. Her roommate is fellow soccer player Duke (Channing Tatum), whom she slowly falls in love with, but who doesn’t return her affections because he has a crush of his own on Olivia (Laura Ramsey), who in turn likes “Sebastian” (who, again, is really Viola). Head hurting yet? That’s only the bare bones of the love dodecahedron. 

Everything about the plot SCREAMS camp, however, “She’s the Man” treats everything a bit too straight laced for any of the campy elements to be actually read as such. Strange, I know, since the movie leans quite heavily on the “com” part of rom-com, but there aren’t anywhere near enough tongue and cheek references to hint to the audience that the production team was aware of the plot’s ridiculousness. If anything, a lot of the adaptational changes only emphasize an insistence on playing the whole thing seriously. 

In addition, the characters are extremely one note, so much so that it’s hard to feel anything for any of the prominent couples. Although they’re the main characters, Viola and Duke don’t have much chemistry, an issue exacerbated by the fact that the infatuation is quite one-sided until the third act twist where Viola reveals that she was a girl all along. A bisexual awakening for a straight male love interest simply was not in the cards for Hollywood teen movies in 2006, and so the pendulum doesn’t swing on Viola x Duke until the end of the movie, unfortunately.

I won’t deny that there aren’t any stand out moments or performances (Bynes breathes what little life can be breathed into the material, as stated), but the overall clumsiness results in a film that adheres much too faithfully to Karlie Kloss’ limited understanding of the possibilities for camp.

The final nail in the coffin for this one is that there are way better and more interesting modern reimaginings of Shakespeare from the time. For some reason, movie execs in the late 1990s and early 2000s couldn’t get enough of them, and so if you’re looking for something that’s like “She’s the Man” but better, I’d recommend “Clueless” or “10 Things I Hate About You” instead.

 

Anyone but You – ★ ★

Coincidentally, I watched this movie the same night as “She’s the Man.” It’s another modern Shakespeare retelling, but “Anyone but You” draws from “Much Ado About Nothing” for its source material. Hailing from the long ago time of 2023, this is a more recent adaptation, so you might be more familiar with it (or, at least, be familiar with the extensive press and media speculation about stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell). After a slightly contrite meet cute, Bea (Sweeney) and Ben (Powell) enjoy one wondrous date night together, learning about each other and bonding over their similarities. In the morning, though, Bea—still not totally over a past relationship, which ended in a bitter break up—leaves without an explanation. She regrets the decision almost immediately, but when she goes back to Ben’s apartment, she overhears him disparaging her to his friend. It’s all a misunderstanding, of course (Ben was only talking her down because he was so hurt that she left so suddenly), but from then on they despise each other. Which would be all well and good, if not for the fact that Bea’s sister, Claudia (Alexandra Shipp) and Ben’s best friend, Halle (Hadley Robsinson), then fall in love—independent of the Bea and Ben situation—and get engaged. As everyone comes together to prepare for the wedding, their respective families discover the animosity and scheme to get Bea and Ben back together. Bea and Ben, fed up with their relatives, decide to fake a relationship to placate everyone involved, but then, and get this, they catch feelings FOR REAL.

Now, it might sound like I’m critiquing the movie’s plot with my slightly sarcastic rendering of events, but the storyline isn’t necessarily something I fault it for. The play that “Anyone but You” adapts pioneered many of these narrative techniques, and so even though it might read cliché to modern eyes, I did my best to take it all in the proper context.

There were a number of things that really did not work for me, though. Most glaringly is how out of place so many elements feel given the directorial and cinematic choices. You might look at the movie’s credentials and think that it belongs in the early aughts era of Shakespeare rom-coms right up alongside “She’s the Man.” This was precisely my take; however, “Anyone but You” has the distinct disadvantage of existing in the mundane, sepia-washed palette that seemingly every piece of Hollywood slop coats itself in these days. 2000s wacky rom-com hijinks just don’t read seriously (how’s that for an oxymoron) in such a bland, colorless environment, and it creates a cognitive dissonance that permeates the entire film.

My second main issue is that there is way too much female objectification.

Not so much with Sydney Sweeney, but the character of Margaret (Charlee Fraser)—an old flame of Ben’s—is the victim of a series of completely unnecessary wardrobe malfunctions that add very little to her characterization. It’s not just the female characters, though. Ben himself, as well as Margaret’s new boyfriend, Beau (Joe Davidson), are also eyed leerily by the camera in an incredibly gratuitous fashion. All of the objectification is seemingly intended by the filmmakers to be funny, but any humor falls quite flat.

I’m going to shout my last critique very loudly: ALL OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS MOVIE ARE TOO RICH!!! There’s no problem with having wealthy or even uber-wealthy main characters in a rom-com, but usually when that’s the case, the film addresses this obvious fact in some way. Here, however, the opulence is treated as normal by everyone, which reads either incredibly naive or incredibly out of touch, since nearly all of the action takes place at Halle’s parents’ ESTATE in Sydney, Australia. The sprawling property is not only right on the waterfront (with a private beach), but is home to an absolutely beautiful mansion as well. Besides one very off-hand comment at the beginning about how gorgeous the villa is, money is never brought up again (either in regards to the wedding or in regards to a class divide), which is all the more strange given that Bea’s entire internal conflict is whether or not she wants to follow through on her parents’ wishes and become a lawyer, a choice that loses much of its potential significance since, although Bea is intended to read as coming from a less well-off background, the film doesn’t seem interested in exploring the implications of that.

If I have so many negative things to say about “Anyone but You,” though, why did I rank it higher than “She’s the Man?” Well, there are a few reasons. First of all, Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell are, of course, incredibly charming here. They sell this story very well, and you really believe their volatile chemistry. There’s also plenty of creativity in this piece, and a lot of interesting choices that incorporate elements from traditional stagings. Although not all of these “direct to screen” instances totally land, they still make for fun, almost meta moments. A favorite sequence of mine, though, is one that is wholly unique to the film, where the two leads accidentally fall into the harbor and need to get rescued by the coast guard. It’s silly, it’s dumb, but also surprisingly poignant and heartfelt. “Anyone but You” may be a mixed bag overall, but strong performances from Sweeney and Powell make the whole thing work surprisingly decently.

KPop Demon Hunters – ★★

Let me make one thing abundantly clear before I get into my opinion of “KPop Demon Hunters.” There is a difference between how entertained you are while watching a movie and your opinion of said movie. A movie can be both excellent entertainment and excellent from an objective standpoint, but can just as well excel in only the entertainment category, only the *quality* category, or neither.

If you’re not familiar with the plot of “KPop Demon Hunters” (have you been living under a rock?) here’s a brief overview. Three KPop idols, Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong) and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) are the leads of the literal super group Huntrx, as in addition to playing to sold-out stadiums worldwide, they also fight demons on the side. However, Rumi hides a horrible secret — her father was a demon. As Huntrx gets closer and closer to eradicating demonkind from the Earth, not only do the patterns that mark Rumi start to become impossible to ignore, but an evil demon KPop boyband pops up out of nowhere, threatening the golden future that Huntrx has worked so hard for.

“KPop Demon Hunters” is a highly entertaining movie. The eye-catching visuals, earwormy songs and inherent style practically cement that as a fact. However, is “KPop Demon Hunters” a good movie? I don’t think so. Unlike with an adaptation such as “She’s the Man” or “Anyone but You,” tired, retreaded storylines are far less excusable in an original work, and “KPop Demon Hunters” is very much guilty of sinking into well-worn tropes. 

Oh no, the main character is conflicted over a personal struggle that they feel the need to hide; oh no, a sudden sexy evil man has appeared; oh no, family is the most important thing in the world; don’t be afraid to trust people … I’m sorry, but it’s the oldest shtick in the book. The clunky, at times confusing and contradictory script is certainly not doing this iteration any favors, and it adds so little to an already overpopulated lineage without subverting audience expectations in the slightest. It’s just a textbook “be true to yourself” story like thousands of others before it, even though the songs are all bops.

To draw a strange comparison (from a movie that is both very entertaining and very good), it’s kind of like what Captain Jack Sparrow explains to Will Turner in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl”: a person can be both a pirate and a good man. “KPop Demon Hunters” is (in my opinion) inconsistent, contrite, largely un-funny and poorly written. But it can be all of those things AND spark joy and excitement, besides. My star rating reflects the former, but “Your Idol” being on my Spotify Wrapped reflects the latter.

My System, Codified

That brings me to the inevitable question that has guided this debate from the beginning: “What’s your system for your Letterboxd ratings, Sarah?” Well, to tell you the truth, I use a similar approach to the one that Jenna described in her own article, which makes her BETRAYAL all the more ironic, since she tried to implement my own techniques against me. 

Half star: Terrible, nuff said.

One star: Just barely passable as something, but riddled with problems. You will need to turn your brain off when you watch it, and even if you do, you still probably won’t enjoy it.

Two stars: A few stand out moments or characters, but nothing to write home about. The whole is much, much less than the sum of its parts.

Three stars: The minimum threshold of saying “I liked it.”

Four stars: Really, really good on nearly all fronts, but maybe there was one element that felt out of place, a rushed beginning (or resolution), or one or two times where you were taken out of it.

Five stars: Perfection, whatever that means to you at the time when you watch it. Usually, a film must hit all the marks of a four-star picture and then resonate with you on some deeper level in addition to that. Or, it just thoroughly entertained you in the way that only the best movies can.

An important final note: once you have a set system, it’s your prerogative to chuck it out the window whenever appropriate. If you watch a big, dumb movie that still blows your socks off, sure, why not give it five stars? (I’ve practiced this myself, as I gave “The Other Woman” (2014) starring Cameron Diaz five stars and I have no qualms about it.) If a classic doesn’t hit the marks you’d been expecting it to, don’t bat an eye when you rate it low (case and point, “The 40 Year Old Virgin” (2005) is a two star flick at best). You want your Letterboxd profile to reflect your viewing experience and your particular takes. Sometimes the mind works in mysterious ways and decides that what others might define as dirt is in fact gold. And, hey, if you ever find yourself wondering “what was I thinking ranking [insert movie name] [insert number of stars]?!,” you can always just rewatch and relog, cause at the end of the day, it’s all just a bit of fun, innit?

Your move, Jenna 🙂