film criticism
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael is a pleasant reminder of Kael’s greatness and a nostalgic look back at an era that changed American cinema forever.
Read our interview with film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum about his new book Cinematic Encounters: Portraits and Polemics focused on 24 influential directors.
Why do we even need film criticism? Well, the short and long answers are multi-faceted messes of conflicting perspectives – just like film.
When the Captain Marvel reviews started appearing online, many of them still by men, I was enraged and I was surprised how angry I was.
Why are many critics giving the problematic Three Billboards a pass? Shawn offers his take and advocates for a focus on critical diversity.
Westerns are the one genre I’ve never really gotten along with. I’ll watch a good one, and I have watched a number of classics, but it’s a genre that’s never particularly resonated with me. My father is a big fan of them, as are some good friends of mine, so this summer I made the decision to just try hard to find something I liked (other than Rio Bravo).
Although a warm hearted documentary, David Stratton: A Cinematic Life cares more about Australian cinema than its subject.
What happened to the art of film criticism, the kind of visceral, honest prose delivered from titans like Pauline Kael? We are witnessing its noisy death rattle and few seem to care. Moonlight, the newest film from director and co-writer Barry Jenkins, is a literal coming-of-age story, chronicling the journey of a young, gay black man, Chiron, into adulthood amidst the rougher parts of Miami.
There’s a warm feeling that engulfs you when viewing an old Hollywood musical. Usually, it’s a wave of nostalgia as soon as the opening credits start to roll. When silver screen icons like Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Ginger Rogers or Fred Astaire show up on your screen to entertain the masses for a few hours, you’re guaranteed an entertaining, yet competent, movie experience.
Editor’s note: Incidentally, we were working on this article a few weeks before Cimino’s death. Sadly, Michael Cimino passed away on July 2 2016, and with this article, we are paying homage to one of the director’s films that had such a significant impact on the entire Hollywood system.
Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is critically-hated films that deserve a second chance.
In any sector where publishing one’s writing, there are various types into which one can subvert their writing style. The four most basic are expository, narrative, descriptive and persuasive. When it comes to writing for film and media, though, all four of these sorts can be used.
This is the second and final part of our What Is Film Analysis article. Find the first part, on Narrative and Character, here. Production The giveaway of any bad production is the settings and costumes.
Film analysis, as far as I can tell, isn’t conducted any more in mainstream film criticism. That’s because these days anyone can write about film, and do. The film theorists and heavy-weight reviewers of the past have been overtaken by the age of the internet and by all the people ‘having a go’.
Lately, due to the #OscarsSoWhite,#OscarsSoMale and #AltOscarParty campaigns, a lot of attention is being paid to how The Academy, and Hollywood in a more general sense, fails to reward women and people of color for their work. It’s no longer just a group of angry Tweeters: The conversation is actually, finally reaching the mainstream, and more people than ever are paying attention to what is happening during awards season this year.
