I think personally I write film reviews different from what you would find on IMDb, or Metacritic, or your popular review sources. I prefer to take on a theoretical and more academic approach, which I suppose pertains to "film studies" more than popular entertainment film reviews. I write to synthesize my understanding of the films I study and improve my understanding of film theory and techniques. For that season, perhaps they're more "essays" than "reviews."
If you are looking for a guide on how to write a good film review for journalism, then I still do have a couple of recommendations:
But without furtherado:
My Guide on Structuring a Good Film Essay
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💡 Before I even begin, I will add that good academic writing practices still apply. I would say that writings about films are highly opinionated, less objective, and there are even perhaps less consequences for what you say and argue. For that reason people tend to slack and become informal in their writing.
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- Start with a summary of the film's plot. This should include a brief who what where when why how, and perhaps main character's names and who they're played by. This is important because you don't want to be introducing characters while you're referring to them when you're analyzing.
- Your summary should be followed by your MAIN ARGUMENT OR THESIS. Yes, there should be no excuse for a missing thesis statement.
- Now, you formulate your thesis statement based on ONE THING you feel really strongly about the film. This could be as small or as big as you want it to be.
- It could be as small as how Finding Dory creates a feeling of nostalgia to appeal to the original Finding Nemo audiences, or how Toy Story's fourth movie appeals to a mature audience.
- OR, it could be as large as how Crazy Rich Asians sets a precedent for minority-driven filmmaking in Hollywood, which doesn't even have much to do the plot, but it's still highly relevant and that is okay... but prepare to write a lot. I would say like the previous examples, the more narrow your focus the better.
- (I mean, the Nerdwriter did an entire video essay about how In the Mood for Love used doors in its opening shot to execute frames within frames and it's one of the most amazing video essays ever.)
- Your thesis should be followed by your body paragraphs which are just regular body paragraphs. Separate them by ideas. The regular topic sentence, evidence, analysis, and link back to the thesis is appreciated.
- Conclude by making a general remark and impression on how the film did otherwise in its technical aspects otherwise, apart from your narrow focus. This is taking a step back to address the film at large. Check out the Downloadable Resources for a template on note-taking that breaks down the film into its technical categories.
- I like to give it a mark out of 10, because it's compatible with other ratings like Metacritics and IMDb. That way you have a clear stands on the film, and can use it as a benchmark to judge other films in the future.
Example of Film Review
I really enjoyed Ad Astra, and I wrote a review about it here:
'Ad Astra' Review: It Deserved More Love.
I pretty much structure all my reviews in the same way.
SUMMARY:
Ad Astra tells the story of Astronaut Roy McBride who undertook a secret mission into the outskirts of our solar system to reach his missing father. His father, H. Clifford McBride, disappeared on his journey beyond Jupiter to Neptune in an attempt to discover intelligent life. Thirty years later, power surges from his father’s mission threaten life on earth.
INTRO: