Movie Reviews Are Not Just Opinion: Analysis and Research Needed

Movie reviews often seem like a chance to merely express your personal opinion, but that is not the instructor’s sole aim in assigning such a paper.  You need to reflect more, review is meant to reflect much more than whether you enjoyed the film.

There is history, sociology, politics, and aesthetics to consider, among many other issues.  However, if you can find an appealing film, or an aspect of an assigned film that speaks to you, to focus on, you will make your task far more pleasant.

Movie reviews that demonstrate careful watching:

Often the instructor will require that you limit your analysis to the specific movie itself.  This is challenging, especially without having many other films of the same genre, period, subject, or director.

Make things easier on yourself by viewing at best advantage – ask for help from instructor if needed:

• Ambient silence or head/earphones
• Good volume/Clarity
• No commercial breaks or watermarks
• No bufferinginterruptions
• Decent visual definition – less important in older films
• Note taking equipment at hand
• Stop/start/rewind controls available

Capture notes on anything that strikes you, with the time of appearance.  (Remember that EVERTHING is there on purpose!)

• Character names
• The setting
• Major actions, scene changes
• Tone of dialogue
• Changes in color/lighting
• One word music descriptions
• Costumes
• Brand appearances
• Your emotional responses

Read everything you can about the movie – after watching it the FIRST TIME - to cross-check your perceptions. Retain your notes, however, even if you misheard a name or guessed a composer wrong: your first reactions are important.

In writing your paper, give your reader enough condensed info to recognize this movie - BRIEFLY

• summarize plot
• draw characters
• describe dialogue, setting, music, costumes, other notable features
• convey message/purpose

Connect each of these choices to the furtherance of the story/message/purpose

Review a movie in comparison to others:

1. Alternatively, the assignment may ask you to reference other films and sources. 
2. You should familiarize yourself with at least a few films:

• By the same director
• In the same year/decade
• On the same subject (e.g., all the versions of Jane Eyre)
• Possibly with the same big star

3. Read reviews from intellectually serious publications, rather than thinly veiled advertising.  New Yorker columnist, Pauline Kael, was the mistress of the long-form, discursive incarnation of the movie review, e.g.

http://www.paulrossen.com/paulinekael/trashartandthemovies.html,

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0051.html.