Film criticism

Last updated

Chicago critic Roger Ebert (right) with director Russ Meyer Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert by Roger Ebert.jpg
Chicago critic Roger Ebert (right) with director Russ Meyer

Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish their findings and essays in books and journals, and general journalistic criticism that appears regularly in press newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets. Academic film criticism rarely takes the form of a review; instead it is more likely to analyse the film and its place in the history of its genre, the industry and film history as a whole. [1]

Contents

Film criticism is also labeled as a type of writing that perceives films as possible achievements and wishes to convey their differences, as well as the films being made in a level of quality that is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. [2] Film criticism is also associated with the journalistic type of criticism, which is grounded in the media's effects being developed, and journalistic criticism resides in standard structures such as newspapers. [3] Journal articles pertaining to films served as representatives for the film critics who desired to increase the amount of communication about movies to a high degree that ascended above content that was normally featured in popular publications. [4] The critics who work in the media are normally commissionaires who affect culture, since the judgments and choices of critics have the effect of influencing what audience members perceive about objects that are supplied to them, and critics are also able to influence how the audience members choose to think about objects that are supplied to them. [5]

In the current era of history, film criticism is rich in having digital devices that allow films to be analyzed through visual and auditory methods that involve critical strategies of creativity that allow people to become immersed in film criticism. [6] Film criticism is also associated with the cultural type of criticism, which is also referred to as academic criticism, and academic criticism is able to primarily make interpretations of films from the viewpoint of directors while the interpretations place emphasis on parallels that films have with previous works that were deemed to be of high quality. [7]

History

Film was introduced in the late 19th century. The earliest artistic criticism of film emerged in the early 1900s. The first paper to serve as a critique of the film came out of The Optical Lantern and Cinematograph Journal, followed by the Bioscope in 1908. [8] [ better source needed ]

Film is a relatively new form of art, in comparison to music, literature and painting which have existed since ancient times. Early writing on film sought to argue that films could also be considered a form of art. In 1911, Ricciotto Canudo wrote a manifesto proclaiming cinema to be the "Sixth Art" (later "Seventh Art"). [9] For many decades after, film was still being accorded less prestige than longer-established art forms. [10] In Sweden, serious film criticism was spearheaded by Bengt Idestam-Almquist, whom the Swedish Film Institute has called the father of Swedish film criticism. [11]

By the 1920s, critics were analyzing film for its merit and value, and as more than just entertainment. The growing popularity of the medium caused major newspapers to start hiring film critics. [8] In the 1930s, the film industry saw audiences grow increasingly silent as films were now accompanied by sound. However, in the late 1930s audiences became influenced by print news sources reporting on movies and criticism became largely centered around audience reactions within the theaters. [12]

In the decades of the 1930s and the 1940s, the type of criticism pertaining to films had to overcome some difficult challenges. [13] The first difficult challenge involves how film criticism in the 1930s decade did not have any stable foundations to reside on, and film criticism also involved critics having vocabularies that were limited. [13] During the 1930s, the jobs of critics weren't perceived to be great and critics did not earn high wages for their work. [13] The next difficult challenge involves the fact that the industry related to film even attempted to use intimidation as a way of making movie critics cease with reviewing films. [13] In the year of 1948, a critic named Eileen Arnot Robertson was forcibly removed from her job as a critic. [13] Despite the fact that she filed a lawsuit against the film industry, the film industry said that Robertson's firing did not occur out of maliciousness. [13] These difficult challenges led to the existences of movie critics who had respect for films, and those new film critics sought to make film criticism be a respected job. [13]

In the 1940s, new forms of criticism emerged. Essays analyzing films were written with a distinctive charm and style, and sought to persuade the reader to accept the critic's argument. [8] This trend brought film criticism into the mainstream, gaining the attention of many popular magazines; this eventually made film reviews and critiques a staple among most print media. As the decades passed, some critics gained fame, and a few became household names, among them James Agee, Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael, and more recently Roger Ebert and Peter Travers.

The film industry also got the chance to see that sound was able to influence how people behaved in movie theaters. [14] When people spoke or made other kinds of sounds, they would be causing disruptions that created difficulties for people to listen to the conversations that were occurring in films. [14] Audience members changed how they behaved in movie theaters, since they would shush people as a way of communicating the messages related to telling other people that they needed to be silent. [14] By keeping themselves in silence, audience members such as film critics were able to make all of their attention be on the movies that they were watching. [14]

Journalistic criticism

Film critics working for newspapers, magazines, broadcast media, and online publications mainly review new releases, although they also review older films. [15] An important task for these reviews is to help readers decide whether they want to see a particular film. A film review will typically explain the premise of the film before discussing its merits or flaws. The verdict is often summarized using a rating system, such as 5- or 4-star scales, academic-style grades, and pictograms (such as those used by the San Francisco Chronicle ). Film reviews are created with the purposes of making the characters, movie plots, and the directors be known in detailed descriptions to influence audience members into deciding if films need to be viewed or be ignored. [16]

Some well-known journalistic critics are James Agee (Time, The Nation); Vincent Canby (The New York Times); Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times); Mark Kermode (BBC, The Observer); James Berardinelli; Philip French (The Observer); Pauline Kael (The New Yorker); Manny Farber (The New Republic, Time, The Nation); Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian); Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune); Andrew Sarris (The Village Voice); Joel Siegel (Good Morning America); Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader); and Christy Lemire (What The Flick?!).

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel popularised the practice of reviewing films via a television program, in the show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies , which became syndicated in the 1980s. Both critics had established their careers in print media, and continued to write reviews for newspapers during the run of their television show.

Format for film critics to write film criticisms

Research says that there are ways in how film critics are able to write criticisms that involve critical discussions containing rationality. [17] When critics are looking for film criticisms that are factual, they must not behave with excessive optimism or be too demanding. [17] Creations and criticisms are activities that humans participate in, and these activities cannot be substituted out for an objective list of morals to be utilized. [17] Humans are restrained by the fact that criticisms cannot communicate messages for forms of artwork, and only the artworks can communicate their messages. [17] The second way in how film critics are able to write criticisms that involve critical discussions containing rationality involves critics analyzing their reasons for not liking specific movies, and critics must discover if they dislike movies for the same criteria that caused them to initially dislike specific movies. [17] That requires utilizing criticism that is analytical and thorough with detail. [17] The third way in how film critics are able to write criticisms that involve critical discussions containing rationality involves critics making blatant statements that are scientific in regards to the workings of films, and how the films are able to affect people. [17] In fact, viewers can watch films to see if they are affected by the movies in the same way that the film critics were affected by them. [17] The fourth way in how film critics are able to write criticisms that involve critical discussions containing rationality involves critics being less arrogant when they want they perceptions of films to be talked about, and critics must be aware of criticisms that have been published. [17] The critics who want to argue must base their arguments in criticisms that have been stated by other critics. [17] The fourth way in how film critics are able to write criticisms that involve critical discussions containing rationality pertains to critics moving away from the idea that artwork such as a film shall have clear meanings. [17] Instead, critics must view artwork such as films to be the results of working hard, many hours of thinking, and ideas being compromised for meanings to not be clear. [17] This research concludes that film critics must repeatedly view films as a way of studying them, if they desire to write thorough reviews on those particular films. [17] Secondly, film critics have the task of making sure that they are highly informed about the film and film critics are also responsible for initiating the discussions about the films. [17] Film critics are also responsible for knowing the creators of the films. [17] Thirdly, film critics must blatantly state their own biases and preferences without associating them with any theories. [17] Fourthly, film critics must appreciate the films that are given positive criticisms and film critics must not be ungrateful towards those films. [17] Finally, a film critic must enjoy the movies that they are criticizing. [17] In this specific regard, a film critic must also want to make their reviews persuade other people watch the movies that the film critic has criticized. [17]

Film critics and audience members

In the academic field of films and cinema, several studies involving research have discovered a positive connection between film critics evaluating films and how well the films perform with audience members. [18] Also, studies involving research in the fields of films and cinema have discovered a connection between film critics evaluating films and audience members having interests or no interests in viewing those films. [18] Based in the perspective of an audience member, a review serves as more than an object that is useful for making decisions. [18] Listening to a review from a critic, watching a critic's review, and reading a critic's review are all ways in which the review is useful to an audience member. [18] The critic's review is able to be referenced in conversations where audience members communicate with other individuals, and audience members can communicate messages about the artistic film that was critically examined or connect the criticism to problems that occur in society. [18]

Online film criticism

Aggregators

Websites such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic seek to improve the usefulness of film reviews by compiling them and assigning a score to each in order to gauge the general reception a film receives. [19] Another aggregator is the Movie Review Query Engine, which is a large data storage on the internet that stores interviews, reviews about movies, news, and other kinds of materials that pertain to specific films. [20] These areas of storage are not intended to help people find specific films or movie content that has aired on television, but the storages are able to help people find reliable film criticisms that can be used as readings for students. [20]

Online film critics

Blogs are a good example to view in relation to how the internet has grown to where social networks and live chats exist alongside websites such as YouTube where people can post their own content. [21] That is because blogging has created new ways for people to make themselves engage with cinematic movies. [21] People who engage themselves with movies choose to participate in various forms of film criticism by using video or DVD clips from YouTube that are placed alongside parts of other films for the sound effects or images from the other films to be used in criticizing the sounds or images that pertain to the YouTube clips that are being criticized. [21] Film critics are also reviewers who are amateurs on websites such as IMDb. [22] Also, many postings from amateur film critics are on IMDb. [22]

Some websites specialize in narrow aspects of film reviewing. For instance, there are sites that focus on specific content advisories for parents to judge a film's suitability for children. Others focus on a religious perspective (e.g. CAP Alert). Still others highlight more esoteric subjects such as the depiction of science in fiction films. One such example is Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics by Intuitor. Some online niche websites provide comprehensive coverage of the independent sector; usually adopting a style closer to print journalism. They tend to prohibit advertisement and offer uncompromising opinions free of any commercial interest. Their film critics normally have an academic film background. [8]

The Online Film Critics Society, an international professional association of Internet-based cinema reviewers, consists of writers from all over the world, [23] while New York Film Critics Online members handle reviews in the New York tri-state area. [24]

Online film criticism has provided online film critics with challenges related to journalism's purpose changing on the internet. [25] For example, critics must contend with the drawback of too many critics being online to the extent of preventing critics from writing original statements. [25] Critics can write original statements online, but there are websites that will steal their ideas and not give credit to the author. [25] Another challenge in film criticism pertains to film critics being pressured into writing reviews that are hasty, since users of the internet will give their attention to other topics if film critics do not post movie reviews quickly. [25]

User-submitted reviews

Community-driven review sites, that allow internet users to submit personal movie reviews, have allowed the common movie goer to express their opinion on films. Many of these sites allow users to rate films on a 0 to 10 scale, while some rely on the star rating system of 1–5, 0–5 or 0–4 stars. The votes are then converted into an overall rating and ranking for any particular film. Some of these community driven review sites include Letterboxd, Reviewer, Movie Attractions, Flixster, FilmCrave, Flickchart and Everyone's a Critic. Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic aggregate both scores from accredited critics and those submitted by users. [26]

On these online review sites, users generally only have to register with the site in order to submit reviews. This means that they are a form of open access poll, and have the same advantages and disadvantages; notably, there is no guarantee that they will be a representative sample of the film's audience. In some cases, online review sites have produced wildly differing results to scientific polling of audiences. [27] Likewise, reviews and ratings for many movies can greatly differ between the different review sites, even though there are certain movies that are well-rated (or poorly-rated) across the board. [28] [29]

Research has found that moviegoers are inclined to leave reviews for films that are not available in movie theaters, and the amount of reviews will decrease as the films earn more money each week. [30] When the amount of money that films earn in movie theaters is increasing, the expected quantity of movie reviews that were posted at prior points in time also increases. [30] This ends up making individuals experience increases in their desires to write movie reviews about films that are earning high quantities of money. [30] When movies are given high ratings, those high ratings are able to persuade viewers of movies to watch other films that share aspects of the movies that viewers prefer to see. [31] The explanations for why movies are given high ratings are able to reach online groups of people who watch movies, and the explanations for movies having high ratings are explained through the usage of reviews that are posted in those online groups. [31]

Academic film criticism

More often known as film theory or film studies, academic critique explores cinema beyond journalistic film reviews. These film critics try to examine why film works, how it works aesthetically or politically, what it means, and what effects it has on people. Rather than write for mass-market publications their articles are usually published in scholarly journals and texts which tend to be affiliated with university presses; or sometimes in up-market magazines. [32]

Most academic criticism of film often follows a similar format. They usually include summaries of the plot of the film to either refresh the plot to the reader or reinforce an idea of repetition in the film's genre. After this, there tends to be discussions about the cultural context, major themes and repetitions, and details about the legacy of the film. [33]

Academic film criticism, or film studies can also be taught in academia, and is featured in many California colleges because they are located near the home of the United States film industry: Hollywood. Some of these colleges include University of California, Davis, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, Stanford University, as well as many other colleges across the world. [34]

Academic criticism is typically divided and taught in the form of many different disciplines that tackle critique in different manors. These can include:

Academic film criticism is associated with formalism, which involves visual aspects and the rules regarding how they are organized as if they were forms of artwork. [36] Formalism also involves stages of development occurring in an orderly manner, such as learning easy instructions before learning difficult ones. [36] Stages of development in formalism also involved organized stages of development that are orderly, and one example involves people learning simple instructions before they have to follow instructions that involve complexity. [36]

Academic film criticism is also associated with structuralism, which involves controlling a situation in an attempt to make it be coherent, and all the aspects of a situation are assumed to be in a structured order. [37]

Academic film criticism tackles many aspects of film making and production as well as distribution. These disciplines include camera work, digitalization, lighting, and sound. Narratives, dialogues, themes, and genres are among many other things that academic film critics take into consideration and evaluate when engaging in critique. [38]

Some notable academic film critics include André Bazin, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut (all writers for Cahiers du Cinéma ); Kristin Thompson, David Bordwell, and Sergei Eisenstein. Godard, Truffaut and Eisenstein were also film directors.

The critics that participated in academic film criticism during the years between 2002 and 2006 had written reviews pertaining to the fact that they disapproved of modern films that were in the horror genre. [39] In the year 2002, a critic named Reynold Humphries made his own discussion in The American Horror Film reach its end when he said that the horror genre's films were not good, and Humphries also stated that films in the horror genre weren't enjoyable. [39] A critic named Kendall Phillips wrote a book titled Projected Fears, and ending the book during the year 2006 involved Phillips saying that American horror films had fallen into the cycle of being movies that had predictability. [39]

Film theory is also part of academic film criticism, since two main film theories have been created. [40] The first main film theory is the part-whole theory. [40] This theory pertains to Eisenstein's philosophy that segments of films are not artistic works on their own, and they are just unemotional aspects of reality. [40] When those segments of films are sequenced in the form of a montage, then the films are artwork. [40] The second film theory is that films are related to reality. Bazin's philosophy involves movies being connected to the real world, which is reality. [40]

Green film criticism

Green film criticism is defined as eco-cinecriticism. [41] This pertains to the specific film critics who are interested in environmental types of films. [41] The cinematic counterpart to writings about nature is the creation of documentaries on nature and films that are about wild creatures. [41]

Issues and controversies

Influence

Film critics are able to be influencers in the circumstances of persuading moviegoers to view or not view in the beginning weeks of movies being available for people to view them. [42] Research has found that negative and positive film reviews are connected to the amounts of money that films earn in box offices over a duration of eight weeks of time, which displays the fact that film critics are influential towards how well films perform in box offices. [42] Film critics are able to influence the choices of people in the public who decide on whether or not they will view a film. [42] Film critics frequently receive invitations to early viewings of movies before the movies are available to all of the moviegoers who aren't film critics, and viewing films at early points in time allows the film critics to write film reviews that are influential to other moviegoers. [42] Film critics have access to information regarding the earliest phases of films, unlike the public, and the earliest phases of films are when film critics are the only reliable sources of information pertaining to the movies that will be in theaters. [42] Research has also displayed the fact that film critics desire to give moviegoers encouragement towards viewing films that are worth viewing while they also display innovation, instead of viewing movies that are simplistic. [43]

However, in recent years, there has been a growing belief in the film industry that critic aggregators (especially Rotten Tomatoes) are increasing the collective influence of film critics. The underperformance of several films in 2017 was blamed on their low scores on Rotten Tomatoes. [44] This has led to studies such as one commissioned by 20th Century Fox claiming that younger viewers give the website more credibility than the major studio marketing, which undercuts its effectiveness. [45]

Today, fan-run film analysis websites like Box Office Prophets, CineBee and Box Office Guru routinely factor more into the opinions of the general public on films produced.

Controversies

Research says that academic studies pertaining to films had a thorough histiography pertaining to films, which also included different styles of films throughout history. [46] However, the academic studies almost made film criticism reach its end. [46] The academic type of writing pertaining to films had created knowledge, which ended up appearing in areas that had been useful for writing film criticisms in a traditional style. [46] Writing about academic films puts emphasis on generalized statements that can be verified. [46] Writing academic films also involves film critics preferring to view films that are typical, instead of viewing films that are bizarre. [46] That is because ordinary kinds of films can be reviewed with generalized statements that can be verified. [46]

Female representation

There have been many complaints against the film-criticism industry for its underrepresentation of women. [47] A study of the top critics on Rotten Tomatoes shows that 91 per cent of writers for movie or entertainment magazines and websites are men, as are 90 per cent of those for trade publications, 80 per cent of critics for general interest magazines like Time , and 70 per cent of reviewers for radio formats such as NPR. [48]

Writing for The Atlantic , Kate Kilkenny argued that women were better represented in film criticism before the rise of the Internet. In the past, when film was considered less prestigious than visual art and literature, it was easier for women to break into film criticism. In the year 1929, Iris Barry was a female film critic from Britain. [49] When Barry lived in London, she earned money from being a writer for magazines, a newspaper, and periodical articles. [49] Barry wrote film criticisms that discussed films that were made in Britain, films that were made in America, and Barry only wrote film criticisms on a selective amount of German movies. [49] Barry also wrote film criticisms for French movies that were made as experiments. [49] Barry wrote film criticisms with a critical amount of analysis. [49] Judith Crist and Pauline Kael were two of the most influential film critics of the 1960s and 1970s. The Internet led to a decline in jobs at small newspapers where women were more likely to review films, whereas the more male-dominated jobs at major newspapers survived better. The Internet also encouraged a growth in niche review websites that were even more male-dominated than older media. Kilkenny also suggested that the shortage of female critics was related to the shortage of female opinion columnists. [10]

Clem Bastow, culture writer at The Guardian Australia , discussed the possible effects of this on the critical response to the 2015 film The Intern , [50] which received mixed reviews from critics:

The critical response to The Intern was fascinating. There's a subset of male critics that clearly see Nancy Meyers as code for chick flick and react with according bile. What's very interesting, though, is that I think female critics, working in an industry that is coded as very male, if not macho, often feel the need to go hard on certain films for women, presumably because they worry that they'll be dismissed, critically speaking, if they praise a film like The Intern as though they're only reviewing it favorably because they're women. [47]

Matt Reynolds of Wired pointed out that "men tend to look much more favorably on films with more masculine themes, or male leading actors." On online review sites such as IMDb, this leads to skewed, imbalanced review results as 70 per cent of reviewers on the site are men. [28]

A study using Johanson analysis was used evaluate the representation of women in 270 films. [51] Johanson complied statistics for the year 2015 on how having a female protagonist affected a movie, with the following results: [51] [52]

  1. 22% of 2015's movies had female protagonists.
  2. Critics are slightly more likely to rate a film highly if it represents women well.
  3. Mainstream moviegoers are not turned off by films with female protagonists.
  4. Movies that represent women well are just as likely to be profitable as movies that do not, and are less risky as business propositions.

Ideology

James Harris, writing for The Critic , argued that "Previously engaging review sites such as Vox , The Guardian and The Onion AV Club have all become The World Social Justice Website, and they are now assessing works in all disciplines in line with wider social justice criteria. Does the artwork highlight social justice issues? Does it adequately meet Equality and Diversity briefs? Is the artwork, in one of the words of the age, problematic?" [53]

Salary

As of 2021, movie critics earned a yearly average salary of $63,474. [54]

As of 2013, American film critics earned about US$82,000 a year. [55] Newspaper and magazine critics made $27,364-$49,574. [56] Online movie critics earned $2-$200 per review. [56] TV critics made up to $40,000-$60,000 per month. [56]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cult film</span> Films with a devoted fanbase

A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase, which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated viewings, dialogue-quoting, and audience participation. Inclusive definitions allow for major studio productions, especially box-office bombs, while exclusive definitions focus more on obscure, transgressive films shunned by the mainstream. The difficulty in defining the term and subjectivity of what qualifies as a cult film mirror classificatory disputes about art. The term cult film itself was first used in the 1970s to describe the culture that surrounded underground films and midnight movies, though cult was in common use in film analysis for decades prior to that.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Ebert</span> American film critic and author (1942–2013)

Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He was the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. Ebert was known for his intimate, Midwestern writing style and critical views informed by values of populism and humanism. Writing in a prose style intended to be entertaining and direct, he made sophisticated cinematic and analytical ideas more accessible to non-specialist audiences. Ebert endorsed foreign and independent films he believed would be appreciated by mainstream viewers, championing filmmakers like Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and Spike Lee, as well as Martin Scorsese, whose first published review he wrote. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times said Ebert "was without question the nation's most prominent and influential film critic," and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him "the best-known film critic in America." Per The New York Times, "The force and grace of his opinions propelled film criticism into the mainstream of American culture. Not only did he advise moviegoers about what to see, but also how to think about what they saw."

<i>Irréversible</i> 2002 French film

Irréversible is a 2002 French art thriller film written and directed by Gaspar Noé. Starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, the plot depicts the events of a tragic night in Paris as two men attempt to avenge the brutal rape and beating of the woman they love. The film is made up of a title sequence followed by 13 segments made to look like long takes. Each of these segments is either a continuous shot or a series of shots digitally composited to resemble a continuous shot. The story is told in reverse order, with each scene taking place chronologically before the one that precedes it.

<i>Day for Night</i> (film) 1973 film by François Truffaut

Day for Night is a 1973 romantic comedy-drama film co-written and directed by François Truffaut. The metafictional and self-reflexive film chronicles the troubled production of a melodrama, and the various personal and professional challenges of the cast and crew. It stars Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Dani, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Truffaut himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fandango Media</span> American media corporation

Fandango Media, LLC is an American ticketing company that sells movie tickets via their website and their mobile app. It also owns Fandango at Home, a streaming digital video store and streaming service, as well as Rotten Tomatoes, which provides television and streaming media information.

<i>Fallen Angels</i> (1995 film) 1995 film by Wong Kar-wai

Fallen Angels is a 1995 Hong Kong neo-noir crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. It features two intertwined storylines—one tells the story of a hitman wishing to leave the criminal underworld, the prostitute he starts a relationship with, and his agent, who is infatuated with him. The other story is of a mute ex-convict on the run from the police and a mentally unstable woman dumped by her boyfriend. Set in 1995 pre-Handover Hong Kong, Fallen Angels explores the characters' loneliness, their alienation from the situations around them, and yearning for connections in a hectic city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audience</span> Group encountering art

An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music, video games, or academics in any medium. Audience members participate in different ways in different kinds of art. Some events invite overt audience participation and others allow only modest clapping and criticism and reception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotten Tomatoes</span> American review aggregator for film and television

Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance, the direct inspiration for the name from Duong, Lee, and Wang came from an equivalent scene in the 1992 Canadian film Léolo.

<i>Alexander</i> (2004 film) 2004 historical drama epic film directed by Oliver Stone

Alexander is a 2004 epic historical drama film based on the life of the ancient Macedonian general and king Alexander the Great. It was co-written and directed by Oliver Stone and starred Colin Farrell. The film's original screenplay was derived in part from the book Alexander the Great, published in 1973 by the University of Oxford historian Robin Lane Fox. After release, while it performed well in Europe, the American critical reaction was negative. It grossed $167 million worldwide against a $155 million budget, thus making it a commercial failure.

<i>Born into Brothels</i> 2004 film by Zana Briski

Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids is a 2004 Indian-American documentary film about the children of sex workers in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district. The widely acclaimed film, written and directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, won a string of accolades including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2005.

<i>The Golem: How He Came into the World</i> 1920 film

The Golem: How He Came into the World is a 1920 German silent horror film and a leading example of early German Expressionism. Director Paul Wegener, who co-directed the film with Carl Boese and co-wrote the script with Henrik Galeen based on Gustav Meyrink's 1915 novel, stars as the titular creature, a being in Jewish folklore created from clay. Photographer Karl Freund went on to work on the 1930s classic Universal horror films years later in Hollywood.

<i>I Lost It at the Movies</i> 1965 book by Pauline Kael

I Lost It at the Movies is a 1965 compendium of movie reviews written by Pauline Kael, later a film critic from The New Yorker, from 1954 to 1965. The book was published prior to Kael's long stint at The New Yorker; as a result, the pieces in the book are culled from radio broadcasts that she did while she was at KPFA, as well as numerous periodicals, including Moviegoer, the Massachusetts Review, Sight and Sound, Film Culture, Film Quarterly and Partisan Review. It contains her negative review of the then-widely acclaimed West Side Story, glowing reviews of other movies such as The Golden Coach and Seven Samurai, and longer polemical essays such as her largely negative critical responses to Siegfried Kracauer's Theory of Film and Andrew Sarris's Film Culture essay "Notes on the Auteur Theory, 1962". The book was a bestseller upon its first release and is now published by Marion Boyars Publishers.

<i>Daisies</i> (film) 1966 film by Věra Chytilová

Daisies is a 1966 Czechoslovakian experimental surrealist comedy art film written and directed by Věra Chytilová.

<i>Were No Angels</i> (1989 film) 1989 film by Neil Jordan

We're No Angels is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Neil Jordan. A remake of the 1955 film of the same name, the film stars Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, and Demi Moore. It received mixed reviews and grossed $10.5 million on a $20 million budget.

<i>The Vengeance Trilogy</i> Trilogy of films directed by Park Chan-wook

The Vengeance Trilogy is a South Korean thematically-linked film trilogy directed by Park Chan-wook, comprising Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003) and Lady Vengeance (2005). Each film deals with the themes of revenge, ethics, violence and salvation. The films are not narratively connected and were dubbed a trilogy by international critics due to their thematic links. The trilogy is considered a revision of the European revenge tradition set amid the 21st century globalization traumas in South Korea.

CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Film</span> Visual art consisting of moving images

A film, also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay, or flick—is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally accompanied by sound and other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema" is a shortening of the word "cinematography" and is used to refer to either filmmaking, the film industry, the overall art form, or a movie theater.

<i>Before the Rain</i> (1994 film) 1994 film by Milcho Manchevski

Before the Rain is a 1994 Macedonian war film written and directed by Milcho Manchevski, starring Katrin Cartlidge, Rade Šerbedžija, Grégoire Colin and Labina Mitevska. Photographed by Manuel Teran, edited by Nicolas Guster and featuring an original score by Macedonian band Anastasia, the film was praised in reviews and at festivals for its sophisticated interplay of three seemingly unrelated short narratives and the emotional effect of its directing. It was seen by audiences in more than 50 countries.

A video essay is an essay presented in the format of a video recording or short film rather than a conventional piece of writing; the form often overlaps with other forms of video entertainment on online platforms such as YouTube. A video essay allows an author to directly quote from film, video games, music, or other digital media, which is impossible with traditional writing. While many video essays are intended for entertainment, they can also have an academic or political purpose. This type of content is often described as educational entertainment.

References

  1. ↑ "Reviews vs Criticism - Film & Television Studies". The University of Vermont Libraries Research Guides. October 15, 2017. Archived from the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  2. ↑ Clayton, Alex; Klevan, Andrew, eds. (2011). The Language and Style of Film Criticism. 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017: Routledge. p. 1. ISBN   978-0-203-81731-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  3. ↑ Mitchuk, Olha; Haidur, Nataliia (2021). "Features of interaction of factors of social and communication activity" (PDF). Obraz (in Ukrainian). 37 (3): 17–26. doi:10.21272/Obraz.2021.3(37)-17-26. ISSN   2415-8496. S2CID   250471376.
  4. ↑ Haberski, Raymond J. (2001). It's only a movie! : films and critics in American culture. Lexington, Ky. ISBN   0-8131-2193-0. OCLC   45230353.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ↑ Verboord, Marc; Noord, Sharon van (2016-04-02). "The online place of popular music: Exploring the impact of geography and social media on pop artists' mainstream media attention". Popular Communication. 14 (2): 59–72. doi: 10.1080/15405702.2015.1019073 . hdl: 1765/87688 . ISSN   1540-5702. S2CID   54768350.
  6. ↑ Grant, Catherine (January 2016). "Beyond Tautology? Audio-Visual Film Criticism". Film Criticism. 40 (1). doi: 10.3998/fc.13761232.0040.113 . hdl: 2027/spo.13761232.0040.113 . ISSN   2471-4364.
  7. ↑ Chen, Rui; Chen, Zhiyi; Yang, Yongzhong (2021-03-04). "The Creation and Operation Strategy of Disney's Mulan: Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Discount". Sustainability. 13 (5): 2751. doi: 10.3390/su13052751 . ISSN   2071-1050.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Battaglia, James (May 2010). Everyone's a Critic: Film Criticism Through History and Into the Digital Age (Senior honors thesis). The College at Brockport. p. 32. hdl:20.500.12648/6777 – via SUNY Open Access Repository.
  9. ↑ Giovanni Dotoli, Ricciotto Canudo ou le cinéma comme art, Preface by Jean-Louis Leutrat, Fasano-Paris, Schena-Didier Érudition, 1999
  10. 1 2 "How the Internet Led to the Decline of Female Film Critics". The Atlantic. 2015-12-27. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  11. ↑ Forslund, Bengt (2012). "Bengt Idestam-Almquist". Swedish Film Database (in Swedish). Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  12. ↑ Butsch, Richard (2001). "American Movie Audiences of the 1930s". International Labor and Working-Class History (59): 106–120. ISSN   0147-5479. JSTOR   27672712.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lentz, Tony M. (1973). "Search for Cinema: Film Criticism in the '30s and '40s". Journal of the University Film Association. 25 (4): 69–84. ISSN   0041-9311. JSTOR   20687223.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Butsch, Richard (2001). "American Movie Audiences of the 1930s". International Labor and Working-Class History (59): 106–120. ISSN   0147-5479. JSTOR   27672712.
  15. ↑ "The Classic". At the Movies with Margaret and David. ABC.net.au. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  16. ↑ Gibson, Elizabeth. "Research Guides: Film & Media: Reviews & Criticism". guides.library.queensu.ca. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Jarvie, Ian (1961). "Towards an Objective Film Criticism". Film Quarterly. 14 (3): 19–23. doi:10.2307/1210064. ISSN   0015-1386. JSTOR   1210064.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 Debenedetti, Stéphane (2006). "The Role of Media Critics in the Cultural Industries". International Journal of Arts Management. 8 (3): 30–42. ISSN   1480-8986. JSTOR   41064885.
  19. ↑ Beam, Christopher; Singer-Vine, Jeremy (2011-06-06). "Slate's Hollywood Career-O-Matic". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2017-10-25.
  20. 1 2 Tejeda, Manuel J. (2008). "A Resource Review for Diversity Film Media". Academy of Management Learning & Education. 7 (3): 434–439. doi:10.5465/amle.2008.37029279. ISSN   1537-260X. JSTOR   40214564.
  21. 1 2 3 Shambu, Girish (2009). "What Is Being Fought For by Today's Cinephilia(s)?". Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media. 50 (1/2): 218–220. doi:10.1353/frm.0.0038. ISSN   0306-7661. JSTOR   41552556. S2CID   191336566.
  22. 1 2 Verboord, Marc (September 2014). "The impact of peer-produced criticism on cultural evaluation: A multilevel analysis of discourse employment in online and offline film reviews". New Media & Society. 16 (6): 921–940. doi:10.1177/1461444813495164. ISSN   1461-4448. S2CID   34276023.
  23. ↑ "Our Bylaws – Online Film Critics Society". ofcs.org. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
  24. ↑ "New York Film Critics Online - Who We Are". www.nyfco.net. Archived from the original on 2015-12-05. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
  25. 1 2 3 4 Porton, Richard; Kenigsberg, Ben; Klinger, Gabe; Koresky, Michael; Reardon, Kiva; Tracy, Andrew (2013). "Film Criticism: The Next Generation". Cinéaste. 38 (2): 35–40. ISSN   0009-7004. JSTOR   43500817.
  26. ↑ "Rotten Tomatoes: About". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
  27. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (2017-12-17). "Did Audiences Enjoy 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'? Deciphering Online User Reviews From Exit Polls". Deadline. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  28. 1 2 "You should ignore film ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes". Wired UK. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  29. ↑ "Top 10 Movies of All Time". www.alltopeverything.com. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  30. 1 2 3 DELLAROCAS, CHRYSANTHOS; GAO, GUODONG (GORDON); NARAYAN, RITU (2010). "Are Consumers More Likely to Contribute Online Reviews for Hit or Niche Products?". Journal of Management Information Systems. 27 (2): 127–157. doi:10.2753/MIS0742-1222270204. ISSN   0742-1222. JSTOR   29780173. S2CID   36573602.
  31. 1 2 Moon, Sangkil; Bergey, Paul K.; Iacobucci, Dawn (2010). "Dynamic Effects among Movie Ratings, Movie Revenues, and Viewer Satisfaction". Journal of Marketing. 74 (1): 108–121. doi:10.1509/jmkg.74.1.108. ISSN   0022-2429. JSTOR   20619083. S2CID   3914043.
  32. ↑ "Faculty publications".
  33. ↑ Hantke, Steffen (2007). "Academic Film Criticism, the Rhetoric of Crisis, and the Current State of American Horror Cinema: Thoughts on Canonicity and Academic Anxiety". College Literature. 34 (4): 191–202. doi:10.1353/lit.2007.0045. JSTOR   25115464. S2CID   170518242.
  34. ↑ Svetkey, Benjamin, ed. (2018-08-16). "The Top 25 American Film Schools". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2021-11-04.
  35. ↑ Ryan, Michael (2012). An introduction to criticism: literature, film, culture. Chichester, West Sussex; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN   978-1-4051-8283-6. OCLC   752909880.
  36. 1 2 3 Feldman, Edmund Burke (1992). "Formalism and Its Discontents". Studies in Art Education. 33 (2): 122–126. doi:10.2307/1320360. JSTOR   1320360.
  37. ↑ Ames, Sanford Scribner (1973). "Structuralism, Language, and Literature". The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 32 (1): 89–94. doi:10.2307/428706. JSTOR   428706.
  38. ↑ Braudy, Leo; Cohen, Marshall (2009). Film theory and criticism: introductory readings. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-536562-7. OCLC   262430698.
  39. 1 2 3 Hantke, Steffen (2007). "Academic Film Criticism, the Rhetoric of Crisis, and the Current State of American Horror Cinema: Thoughts on Canonicity and Academic Anxiety". College Literature. 34 (4): 191–202. ISSN   0093-3139. JSTOR   25115464.
  40. 1 2 3 4 5 Henderson, Brian (1971-04-01). "Two Types of Film Theory". Film Quarterly. 24 (3): 33–42. doi:10.2307/1210090. ISSN   0015-1386. JSTOR   1210090.
  41. 1 2 3 Ivakhiv, Adrian (2008). "Green Film Criticism and Its Futures". Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. 15 (2): 1–28. doi:10.1093/isle/15.2.1. ISSN   1076-0962. JSTOR   44086718.
  42. 1 2 3 4 5 Basuroy, Suman; Chatterjee, Subimal; Ravid, S. Abraham (2003). "How Critical Are Critical Reviews? The Box Office Effects of Film Critics, Star Power, and Budgets". Journal of Marketing. 67 (4): 103–117. doi:10.1509/jmkg.67.4.103.18692. ISSN   0022-2429. JSTOR   30040552. S2CID   17913431.
  43. ↑ FARBER, STEPHEN (1976). "FILM: The Power of Movie Critics". The American Scholar. 45 (3): 419–423. ISSN   0003-0937. JSTOR   41207394.
  44. ↑ Mendelson, Scott (13 June 2017). "Rotten Tomatoes, Netflix And A Perfect Storm That Dooms Hollywood". Forbes. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  45. ↑ Lee, Chris (9 June 2017). "How Hollywood Came to Fear and Loathe Rotten Tomatoes". Vanity Fair . Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  46. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey (2008-09-01). "The Rise and Fall of Film Criticism". Film Quarterly. 62 (1): 10–11. doi:10.1525/fq.2008.62.1.10. ISSN   0015-1386.
  47. 1 2 Adams, Thelma (2015-12-29). "The Curious Case of the Missing Women in Film Criticism". Variety. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  48. ↑ Devan Coggan (2016-06-23). "Male film critics greatly outnumber female critics, study finds". EW.com. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
  49. 1 2 3 4 5 Wasson, Haidee (2006). "The Woman Film Critic: Newspapers, Cinema and Iris Barry". Film History. 18 (2): 154–162. doi:10.2979/FIL.2006.18.2.154. ISSN   0892-2160. JSTOR   3815632. S2CID   194069701.
  50. ↑ Clem Bastow (September 30, 2015). "The Intern has been panned by film critics. Why am I not surprised?". theguardian.com . Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  51. 1 2 Johanson, MaryAnn (2016-04-11). "Where Are the Women?: crunching the numbers". FlickFilosopher.com. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  52. ↑ Johanson, MaryAnn (April 2016). "Where Are the Women? : Data Spreadsheet". Google Docs.
  53. ↑ Harris, James (2022-10-17). "Criticising the critics". The Critic . Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  54. ↑ "Pay Scale for Movie Critics". Work - Chron.com. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  55. ↑ "Pay Scale for Movie Critics" . Retrieved 2018-05-02.
  56. 1 2 3 "How Much Money Do Movie Critics Make?". Bizfluent. Retrieved 2018-05-02.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.