For your Movie Review Essay, you will develop a three-page essay (minimum) that critically analyzes and evaluates a movie. You may choose any movie of your liking, but make sure it is one in which you can identify a clear theme and feel passionate about based on the criteria listed in the essay breakdown.
This essay should also incorporate two sources throughout in MLA style, using in-text and parenthetical citations, and it should end with a Works Cited page (page 4). One source should be the movie itself and the other a website that contains content pertaining to your review and analysis. Please avoid using Wikipedia.
Here are the key components that should be present in your review as the film critic:
INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH
- Engage the audience and get them thinking about the major focus of your movie review.
- Introduce the movie by title (put the title in quotation marks or in italics and use consistently).
- Include a thesis that reveals the overall theme of the movie and why people should see it:
- thesis may be 2-3 sentences for this paper
- avoid announcing phrases, such as “In this paper, I will discuss”
BODY PARAGRAPHS (need several to support thesis)
- Discuss several criteria that serve as support for your overall opinion of the movie.
- Here are the criteria to choose from:
plot characters setting costumes special effects
soundtrack/music theme
- Be sure to avoid over-plot summarizing—instead, provide highlights and insights into why the film should be seen and how a certain theme is illustrated throughout.
- Make sure the body paragraphs are well-organized according to importance and flow from one to the next with strong transitions.
- Also, make sure you choose criteria that best illustrate the theme through strong examples.
- Incorporate a few citations into the body paragraphs to show your understanding of citation and documentation:
- Use in-text citations and parenthetical citations to avoid plagiarism.
- When citing sources, use a variety of summary and direct quotation, but not matter which you choose, keep citations fairly brief to just a line or two.
- Use your sources as further evidence of your opinions and/or to refute (you can “argue” in opposition of a source to also generate content).
- Be sure to include the full citations on the Works Cited page.
CONCLUSION
- Restate your major focus of theme and make a recommendation as to why the audience should go see the movie, etc.
- The conclusion is a good time to tie the movie into society and into a universal theme—a lesson that can be learned!
Since the essay should be three pages full of content, the fourth page should be the Works Cited page that lists the full entries for your two sources (the movie and a secondary website).
***Please be aware that your paper will be submitted through SafeAssign (our plagiarism detection service) once you upload it to Blackboard. Outside information from your sources should be adequately cited following MLA guidelines.
Once you submit your drafts, the SafeAssign score should be 25% or lower. Any paper that relies too heavily on sources or has any trace of plagiarism will receive a 0. Here is the rule for citations: when in doubt, cite! Also, reach out to me right away with help on conducting research if you get lost in the process.
I look forward to seeing everyone’s approach to this essay! Have fun!