How to write a film review:
1. A Title – catchy, can indicate if review will be positive or negative, you can play with words to make it funny or different. For example here are a couple reviews I evaluated. Titles:
Goodfellas: Scorsese Tackles Bad Blood
Blade Runner 2049: A Future Classic
A Woman Rules in Gravity
(Notice that these titles all included the title of the film—but it is not necessary to include the name of the film)
2. Paragraph 1 – Opening paragraph – YOU can start to summarize film and give early suggestions about your general view of it (positive/negative THE THESIS STATEMENT OR MAIN IDEA/ARGUMENT).
THE first paragraph MUST include the film title, the director and the year it was released. This information can be typed this way for example:
Black Panther (Coogler, 2018)
or
Citizen Kane (Dir. Orson Welles, 1941)
The opening sentence could be stated thus:
A film such as Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) could never be made nowadays.
3. Paragraph 2 – Start or continue summary of film, don’t give details about the ending or else no one will go and see the film!!
4. Paragraph 3 and 4 – positive things you thought about the film, what did you like? Why? Use descriptive words, think about the story, setting, effects used, music used
5. Paragraph 5 and 6 – negative things you thought about the film, what didn’t you like? Why? Comment on the same type of things that you mentioned in paragraphs 3 and 4
6. Paragraph 7 and 8 – One approach is to discuss the characters. You can also write about the editing or the sound or the cinematography or… If you discuss the characters or Characterization – talk about the characters, did you like them? Did the actors play them well? What was it about their portrayal that you liked or didn’t like? Other impressions of the characters, will certain audience members be able to relate to certain characters? How? Will certain audience members not like certain characters? Why not?
7. Paragraph 9 – Final comments – general comments that summarize your view of the film, you may want to say something inspiring to get the reader to want to go out and see the film or you might say something that would want them not to go and see it! After the paragraph you would give it a star rating out of 5 to indicate your rating for it.
Common words and phrases used in film reviews that you might want to use in your own reviews:
spectacular visual effects, excessive violence, breathtaking, evocative, mood, atmosphere, poorly, unsuccessful, detail, scenery, irresistible, perfect, moments, plot, this movie has been compared to ____ because, wonderful, hilarious, momentum, unexpected plot twists, unbelievable, phenomenal, hype, suspense, disappointing, confusion/confused, fake, imitation, genre, unoriginal, typical, thrilled, was a very moving portrayal, quality of the film, I was impressed by, credible, cliche, a mixture of, classic, captivating
Please make sure your movie titles are italicized.
***The review’s structure can be changed, for example fewer paragraphs.
