Book Review

Introduction

A film review is a piece of writing that's purpose is to deliver to your reader your opinion on a film. Throughout your review, your job is to evaluate the film and all of its pieces.

Structure of a film review

A film review is highly structured. It goes a little bit like this:

• An overall introduction: what's the film's name, director? A brief plot summary that leaves your reader wanting to know how the film ends

• Discussion of the characters and the actors who played them: who were the best characters and why? who were the worst and why? who were the best and worst actors and why?

• Discussion & evaluation of film techniques; in these two or three paragraphs, choose two or three techniques that stand out to you and evaluate them and give reasons for your evaluation. Examples could include: costume, soundtrack, make up, mise en scene, camera shots, dialogue etc

• Discussion & evaluation of director and their message: this is the paragraph (or two) where you say if the  director did a good job. Did they make good decisions around techniques? What bits could they have done better and how? What was their theme/message/main idea and did they do a good job of communicating this to the audience?

• Conclusion: so, overall, was this a great film? Why or why not? Do you recommend other people go and see it or not - why? *note - this is not the place to say 'I give this movie 7 out of 10'. Be more inventive than that!

Some examples to check out

Before you start writing, a good thing to do is to check out some examples of what other people have written. So check out these ones below to give you some ideas about HOW to write a review. Look out, and keep a note of, how the author is putting their opinion across - what words are they using? What sentence starters are they employing? Interesting words?

Some ideas of films that are at Level 3

The film that you review needs to be at NCEA Level 3 and appropriate for school (and if you are under 18, it cannot be R18). Some examples include:

• Hunger (Steve McQueen)

• 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)

• American Beauty (Sam Mendes)

• Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann)

• The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann)

• Gallipoli (Peter Weir)

• The Duchess (Saul Dibb)

• The Danish Girl (Tom Hooper)

• The Imitation Game (Mortem Tyldum)

• Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)

But, to be fair, pretty much any film could be a goer, just check in with your teacher.

Whilst you watch the film

While you watch your film, you should take notes on:

• the way that it makes you feel (e.g. shocked, disgusted, laughed uncontrollably, snorted)

• characters you like / dislike

• interesting parts, character actions

• notes on the theme (think about challenges and changes that the characters face along the way and how they react)

• Techniques that stick out to you e.g. soundtrack, dialogue, setting, costume etc.

• Write down any quotes that stick out

Then use those notes to help you to draft up your review using the structure mentioned at the top of this page.