A film-logging app has no business starting a magazine. We're doing it anyway, and we owe you an explanation.
Reelist has always been more writing than software. Every review, every list, every one-line diary entry is a small act of publishing. The community has been running a magazine here for years — we just never gave it a masthead. The Journal is us finally admitting what the reviews already were.
One sentence guides everything we'll publish here: get more films onto more watchlists.
That's it. Not "grow engagement", not "drive subscriptions". If a piece doesn't make you want to add a film to your watchlist, we shouldn't run it. Interviews, data dives, lists, the occasional argument — all of it measured against that one line.
What you can expect
A few recurring things. Four Favourites, where we ask people — members and the occasional director who wanders in — the same impossible question and let the answers speak. Data dives, where we turn the community's own logs into stories about what all of us are actually watching. And lists, because a good list is the purest form of film writing there is.
We'll publish the community's Year in Review here every January. We'll cover the festivals our crews show up to. And once a month, the highlights land in your inbox via the Call Sheet — one email, no noise.
Written by members, for members
The voice here is a member's voice, because it is one. Nobody on this masthead is above logging a bad film and admitting it. We're not critics handing down verdicts; we're the person next to you at the late show, leaning over to say "you have to log this one."
So: welcome to the Journal. Add something to your watchlist while you're here.