Sightlines is a film guide to 3,400 movies. Here is how to search it, explore it, read it, and make it yours. Each tip links to the page it describes.

Search for a film in your own words

The search field on every page understands sentences, not only titles.

• Describe what you want. "A quiet film about grief that ends with some hope", "tense and beautiful for a Friday night, nothing gory", "a comedy to watch with my parents that isn't cheesy". Ask reads the sentence and answers with films, each saying why on hover.
• Name a film and you get the films around it: the films related to Heat, ranked by how close they are, with the film you started from first.
• Name two films with "vs" ("Heat vs Collateral") to see where each sits on the tone sliders and what lies between them.
• Name a director to get their films and the films around them. As you type, a list drops down with titles and directors; a director's row opens their films.
• Refine an answer. Under an Ask answer, say more ("less horror, more of the 90s") and the answer narrows.
• A film we don't hold still works as a starting point: type its title and we place it among the films we do hold.

Explore films by genre, mood, decade and more

Every wall of films has the same controls.

• Browse puts all 3,400 films on one grid. Narrow by decade, genre, mood, subject, setting, technique, movement, national cinema or country. Each choice shows how many films it leaves.
• Slide by tone. Eleven sliders, from warm to menacing, funny to serious, slow-burn to frenetic. Move one and the wall reorders to match.
• Group the wall by decade, genre, feeling or by the curated runs of films that belong together, or leave it as one grid.
• Widen or narrow a set. On a wall around a film, choose how many films to show, from 50 to 400, and sort by relevance, year, popularity, rating or title.
• Show titles under the posters when you want to scan by name rather than by image.

Read about a film

Every film has one page, with tabs.

• The film page (for example Heat) opens with what the film is about, the experience of watching it, its performances and its craft: cinematography, editing, staging, sound. Then production, technique, genre and cycle, the director's method, the movement and period it belongs to, its themes, and its place in film history.
• Lineage lists the films it descends from and the films it influenced, with a line on what carries over, and the films alongside it in its genre and tradition.
• Theory is a film theory reading of the film through Gilles Deleuze's Cinema books: how it builds time, movement, action and narrative form. The concepts link to a glossary with the films that show each one.
• Reception follows the film from its reviews on release to its reputation now: what critics said, what is still debated, its legacy and influence, and the films its director named as influences.
• Essays and courses shows the film essays and film courses the film appears in, and the curated runs of related films it belongs to.
• Related films on the film page opens the wall of similar films, with rings marking which are its ancestors, which are sideways from it, and which share a run with it.

Get recommendations from your own taste

Bring your films and Sightlines reads them.

• Bring your films on Your Films: paste a Letterboxd list or watchlist link, your Letterboxd username, titles one per line, a screenshot of posters, or a CSV. Sightlines keeps the films it holds as a list.
• Read your taste. From your films, a taste reading in plain words: what you go to films for, the tone you take, how you like it shot and written, each claim with the films behind it and films to try next. Sharpen it by choosing between films two at a time; the reading and its recommendations move with your choices.
• Answer the reading. Every claim has three answers: That's right, Not me and Say more. A claim you confirm loses its hedge and its films lead your recommendations. A claim you reject stops steering them, and Sharpen then asks you to choose between films split on that very point, to see what you meant. Say more in your own words and the films suggested for that claim follow your words. Your answers stay with your reading.
• Want to watch. Tap the bookmark on any film the reading suggests to put it on a watchlist in Your Films.
• No list? Choose between films, two at a time, and a reading builds from your choices alone.
• Tune any wall to you. With a reading on your device, a wall of films can be reranked to your taste, and "In my taste" narrows it to the films inside your territory.
• Group your films into the curated runs they belong to, read the lines of influence between them, or read your four Letterboxd favorites together.
• Make a course from your films. A short, spoiler-free course written from the films you brought, with what to watch for in each.

Save films to a list

One list, on your device, everywhere on the site.

• Tap the + on any poster to add the film. The pill at the bottom right counts your list and opens it.
• Add a whole wall with "Add all" under a wall's title, or the films you have narrowed it to.
• Name and save the list to get a link you can share. A saved list can be reopened, edited, and read for its lines of influence.
• Export to Letterboxd as a CSV that imports straight in, print it or save it as a PDF, or save it as one image of its posters to post.

Film essays and film courses

Films to watch together, and why.

• Film essays trace a line through several films: a genre and its history, a director's method, a movement, a technique, an idea. The films each essay discusses are a click away.
• Film courses are curated runs of films to watch together, connected by a genre, a movement, a craft or a theme, spoiler-free, with what to watch for in each film and what carries over to the next.
• Curated runs of related films appear under Ask answers, on film pages and in your taste reading: a handful of films that reward being watched near each other, with a line on why.

Share what you find

Every page has the same tools.

• Share opens a sheet for Facebook, X, WhatsApp, Reddit, email or a copied link, with the page's picture where it has one.
• Copy a post puts a post-ready sentence and the link on your clipboard, in your own voice.
• Save as image makes a card of the films on the page. Past 25 films it becomes a full poster sheet.
• Print / PDF prints the page or saves it as a PDF. Export to Letterboxd downloads the page's films as a CSV that imports straight into Letterboxd.
• On a phone the labels sit under the icons; on a desktop they appear as you hover.