As a form of writing, the film review began its life humbly,
as a brief description and evaluation of a film published in a newspaper. Film reviews aimed to give readers advice
about which films currently playing in theaters they should spend their time
and money to see. Film reviews of this
sort continue to be published by newspapers and electronically, and continue to
be useful to movie fans. But as viewers
now have access to a full century of films from all over the world, made in
many styles and for many audiences, film reviewers have also taken on the role
of public curators of cinematic history, guiding fans toward the best of what
the film industry has produced, and using their knowledge of film to give
viewers insights into the meaning and significance of the best films. These are the sort of review that I will
challenge you to write for this class.
There are at least three different purposes that you might try to achieve
with your reviews for this class:
Write a film review that recommends a relatively obscure
film which you believe has an important political meaning. This is pretty straight-forward. Tell us about a film with a political edge
that you think is really worth seeing but most people don’t know about. My entry in the genre of review will come in
my comments on Beasts of the Southern
Wild (2012) at the end of the class.
Although it got a lot of critical acclaim and also kick up a bit of
controversy when it was released, this dystopian meditation on what rising
sea-levels look like from the wrong side of the wall that keeps the water out,
filmed in areas of Louisiana devastated by Katrina and released in the year of
Sandy, is not much remember now. But it
should be.
Your review should be approximately 800 to 1000 words long
and should cite the title and release date of the film reviewed, make some
reference to one or more other reviews, and use proper citation where necessary
in an acceptable format. I look forward to have a great collection of reviews
by the end of the class.
I attachged a list of films being watched throughouty the semester PLEASE do not use any of these movies to write the review. Those are the films we are already watching and have to write about one that is not on the list