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Film criticism

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see Film criticism '''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.

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 film genre genres. The popularity of mass-marketed action film action, horror film horror, and comedy film 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 drama film dramas, the influence of reviews is extremely important. Poor reviews will often doom a film to obscurity and financial loss.

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 cataclysmic failure of some heavily-promoted movies (such as ''Alexander (movie) 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 (film) 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, 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.

= "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 for a weekend that includes a screening of the studios newest film. This screening normally occurs well before other critics have seen the film. 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. Other critics strongly oppose this practice arguing it is selling reviews for bribes. [http://www.efilmcritic.com eFilmcritic.com] published an [http://www.efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=712 expose] of the most notorious "critic" in this category, Earl Dittman. One reviewer who was widely labeled a "quote whore" was David Manning (fictitious writer) 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''.

Online film reviews
Some websites seek to improve the usefulness of film reviews by compiling them acertain a general opinion. 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. 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. Others focus on a religious perspective. 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.

Notable journalistic critics
*Rona Barrett *James Berardinelli *Ernest Callenbach *Cinecast *Roger Ebert (''Chicago Sun-Times'' Siskel & Ebert) *David Edelstein (''New York Magazine'', NPR's ''Fresh Air'', ''CBS Sunday Morning'') *Àlex Gorina *Leslie Halliwell *Pauline Kael *Stanley Kauffmann (The New Republic) *Dave Kehr (''The New York Times'') *Mark Kermode *Harry Knowles (''Ain't It Cool News'') *Tim Lucas (''Video Watchdog'') *Derek Malcolm, (the Manchester ''The Guardian Guardian'') *Leonard Maltin *Janet Maslin *Nell Minow, Yahoo!'s "Movie Mom" *Khalid Mohammed ''(Bollywood films, previously for The Times of India and Midday'') *Barry Norman *Rex Reed *Richard Roeper (Ebert & Roeper) *Jonathan Rosenbaum (''Chicago Reader'') also author of several books on Hollywood and film criticism. *Jonathan Ross *Danielle Savage *A. O. Scott (''New York Times'') *Gene Shalit (ABC Television) *Joel Siegel *John Ivan Simon *Gene Siskel (''Chicago Tribune'', Siskel & Ebert) *David Stratton *Peter Travers (''Rolling Stone'') *Parker Tyler *Alexander Walker for the London '' Evening Standard'' and others *David Walsh (World Socialist Web Site) * Matt Weatherford, aka The Filthy Critic

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.

Notable academic critics
* Taran Adarsh * Rudolf Arnheim * Béla Balázs * André Bazin * Jean-Louis Beaudry * Peter Bogdanovich * David Bordwell * Ernest Callenbach * Ray Carney * Serge Daney * Maya Deren * Mary Ann Doane * Sergei Eisenstein * Siegfried Kracauer * Christian Metz * Laura Mulvey * William Rothman * Andrew Sarris * Kaja Silverman * Kristin Thompson * Slavoj Žižek

See also
*Film journals and magazines

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

External links

- Bright Lights Film Journal
- Everyone's A Critic
- Filmsite.org
- Independent Critics
- Internet Movie Database
- Wid-Get Movie Resources
- Kamera
- Screening the Past
- Metacritic
- Movie Review Query Engine
- Offscreen
- Roger Ebert
- Rotten Tomatoes
- The Online Film Critics Society
- Senses of Cinema
- Links to everything else
- The Film Journal Category:Film criticism * de:Filmkritik es:Crítica cinematográfica ja:映画評論 {{catmore}} Category:Film Criticism Category:Opinion journalism de:Kategorie:Filmkritik

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