Film criticism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and published in journals.
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[edit] Journalistic criticism
Film critics working for newspapers, magazines, broadcast media, and online publications mainly review new releases. Normally they only see any given film once and have only a day or two to formulate opinions. Despite this, critics have an important impact on films, especially those of certain genres. The popularity of mass-marketed action, horror, and comedy films tend not to be greatly affected by a critic's overall judgment of a film. The plot summary and description of a film that makes up the majority of any film review can have an important impact on whether people decide to see a film. For prestige films with a limited release, such as independent dramas, the influence of reviews is extremely important. Poor reviews will often doom a film to obscurity and financial loss.
[edit] Reviews and film marketing
The impact of reviews on a film's box office performance and DVD rentals/sales is a matter of debate. Some claim that movie marketing is now so intense and well financed that reviewers cannot make an impact against it. However, the failure of some heavily-promoted movies (such as Alexander) that were harshly reviewed, as well as the unexpected success of critically praised independent movies (such as Pulp Fiction) indicates that extreme critical reactions can have considerable influence. Others note that positive film reviews have been shown to spark interest in little-known films. Major box-office analysis websites like Box Office Prophets and Box Office Guru regularly factor in general film review opinions in their projections of a film's earnings.
Studios respect the clout of reviewers. There have been several films in which film companies have so little confidence that they refuse to give reviewers an advanced viewing to avoid widespread panning of the film (such as The Avengers). However, this usually backfires as reviewers are wise to the tactic and warn the public that the film may not be worth seeing. Such films often do poorly as a result.
Since so much money is riding on positive reviews, studios often work to woo film critics. Any major release is accompanied by mailings to film critics press kits containing background information, many photos for use in a publication, and often small gifts. Film reviewers who appear on television are given clips from the movie which they may use.
[edit] "Quote whoring"
Almost all films, no matter how badly panned they are by other critics, can find some reviewers to praise them. These praises often appear in the ads for the movies. Often used are stock phrases such as "spectacular," "edge-of-the-seat," "thrilling," "joy ride," "triumph," "tour de force."
These reviews are sometimes obtained by the studio offering to fly a group of critics from cities across the United States to either New York or Los Angeles. Added to this "free vacation" are often elaborate gifts. After the screening the studios ask the critics to write a small review, often only a few sentences. From these reviews they draw advertising blurbs.
One reviewer who was widely labeled a "quote whore" was David Manning, whose quotes often appeared on promotional posters for Columbia Pictures. In early June 2001, the company admitted that Manning was an entirely fictional creation of their marketing department. In 2005, the studio reached a $1.5 million settlement and agreed to refund the ticket price for viewers who attended certain movies, including A Knight's Tale and Hollow Man.[citation needed]
In the United Kingdom this same accusation was levelled at the News of the World critic, Paul Ross, whose quotes frequently appeared on film posters. The magazine Total Film in 2003 published a list of a number of films released that year which Ross had called 'excellent' or 'the best' in their genres, and pointed out that he often appeared to contradict himself in order to get his review quoted. Unlike Manning, however, Ross is a real journalist, and the brother of Jonathan Ross, also a film critic.
[edit] Online film reviews
Some websites 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. Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic are two such examples. The Online Film Critics Society, an international professional association of Internet-based cinema reviewers, consists of writers from all over the world.
A new website allowing internet users to read and discuss teen's opinions on the latest blockbusters is Teen Critics
A number of websites allow internet users to submit movie reviews and scores to allow a broad consensus review of a movie an example of this kind of site is The Big Movie Review
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 (e.g. Screen it!). 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.
One unique website, Everyone's a Critic, allows anyone to publish film reviews and comment on them.
[edit] Notable journalistic critics
- James Agee
- James Berardinelli
- Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian)
- Ty Burr (The Boston Globe)
- Ernest Callenbach
- Vincent Canby (The New York Times)
- Bosley Crowther
- Manohla Dargis
- David Denby
- Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times, Siskel & Ebert)
- David Edelstein (New York Magazine, NPR's Fresh Air, CBS Sunday Morning)
- Manny Farber
- Otis Ferguson
- The Filthy Critic
- Jack Garner (Gannett newspapers)
- Daniel Garrett (Offscreen.com, TheCompulsiveReader.com, Cinetext.Philo.at)
- Graham Greene
- Phil Hall (Film Threat)
- Leslie Halliwell
- Molly Haskell
- J. Hoberman (The Village Voice)
- Kamran Jawaid (Dawn Newspaper)
- Pauline Kael (The New Yorker)
- Stanley Kauffmann (The New Republic)
- Mark Kermode
- Anthony Lane (The New Yorker)
- Terry Lawson (Detroit Free Press)
- Joe Leydon ([[1]])
- Tim Lucas (Video Watchdog)
- John Maguire (The Irish Independent)
- Derek Malcolm (the Manchester Guardian)
- Leonard Maltin (Entertainment Tonight, Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide)
- Janet Maslin (The New York Times)
- Michael Medved
- Elvis Mitchell
- Joe Morgenstern (The Wall Street Journal)
- Wesley Morris (The Boston Globe)
- Khalid Mohammed (Bollywood films, previously for The Times of India and Midday)
- Barry Norman
- Robert Osborne
- Rex Reed (New York Observer)
- Richard Roeper (Ebert & Roeper)
- Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)
- Jonathan Ross
- Andrew Sarris
- A. O. Scott (New York Times)
- Gene Shalit (NBC's Today Show)
- Joel Siegel
- John Ivan Simon
- Gene Siskel (Chicago Tribune, Siskel & Ebert)
- David Stratton
- Peter Travers (Rolling Stone)
- Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times)
- Parker Tyler (Film Culture)
- Johnny Vaughan
- Alexander Walker (London Evening Standard and others)
- David Walsh (World Socialist Web Site)
- Armond White
[edit] Academic criticism
Some claim that journalist film critics should only be known as film reviewers, and that true film critics are those who take a more academic approach to films. This work is more often known as film theory or film studies. These film critics try to come to understand why film works, how it works, what it means, and what effects it has on people. Rather than write for mass-market publications their articles are published in scholarly journals, or sometimes in up-market magazines. They also tend to be affiliated with universities.
[edit] Notable academic critics
- Rudolf Arnheim
- Béla Balázs
- André Bazin
- Jean-Louis Baudry
- Peter Bogdanovich
- David Bordwell
- Ernest Callenbach
- Ray Carney
- Carol J. Clover
- Hamid Dabashi
- Serge Daney
- Maya Deren
- Mary Ann Doane
- Sergei Eisenstein
- Manny Farber
- Jean Luc Godard
- Siegfried Kracauer
- Marcia Landy
- Christian Metz
- James Monaco
- Laura Mulvey
- Hugo Münsterberg
- Éric Rohmer
- William Rothman
- Jacques Rivette
- Andrew Sarris
- Kaja Silverman
- Kristin Thompson
- François Truffaut
- Robin Wood
- Slavoj Žižek
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Jonathan Rosenbaum, Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Conspire to Limit What Films We Can See, A Cappella Books 2000
- Slavoj Žižek, The Žižek Reader (edited by Elizabeth Wright and Edmond Wright), Blackwell Publishing 1999
- Maya Deren, Essential Deren: Collected Writings on Film by Maya Deren (edited by Bruce R. McPherson), Documentext 2005
- Raúl Ruiz, Poetics of Cinema (translated by Brian Holmes) Dis Voir 2005
- Raymond J. Haberski, Jr., It's Only A Movie!: Film and Critics in American Culture, University Press of Kentucky, 2001
- Robin Wood, Personal Views: Explorations in Film (Revised Edition), Wayne State University Press, 2006
