How To Write A Movie Review Essay?

How To Write A Movie Review Essay
5. Call out directors, cinematographers, and special effects. – This is where your film geek can really shine. Tell your readers about the highlights or missteps of directors, cinematographers, costume designers, and CGI. What worked, what surprised you, and what fell short of expectations are all great questions to address in the body of your review.

How do you start a film review essay?

– In the opening of your review, provide some basic information about the film. You may include film’s name, year, director, screenwriter, and major actors. – Your introduction, which may be longer than one paragraph, should also begin to evaluate the film, and it should allude to the central concept of the review.

What are the parts of a movie review essay?

Your review should start with an introduction, then a summary of the book/movie, then your analysis and finally your conclusion.

Is a movie review an essay?

A film review is a type of essay that offers a critical analysis of a film. It can be negative or positive, but it should always be thoughtful and well-reasoned.

What are 7 parts of the movie review?

How to Write a Film Review

How to Organize Your Movie Review – Quality of your paper depends on the level of organization you implement. Never underestimate the importance of well-structured outline, regardless of the type of paper you have to write. Outlines help you focus on the subject and contribute to a logical flow.

Introduction (with title, release date, background information)
Summary of the story
Analysis of the plot elements (rising action, climax)
Creative elements (dialogues, characters, use of colors, camera techniques, mood, tone, symbols, costumes or anything that contributes or takes away from the overall plot)
Opinion (supported with examples and facts from the story)
Conclusion (announcing whether the filmmaker was successful in his/her purpose, re-state your evidence, explain how the motion picture was helpful for providing a deeper understand of course topic)

What does a good movie review look like?

Download Article Download Article Whether a movie is a rotten tomato or a brilliant work of art, if people are watching it, it’s worth critiquing. A decent movie review should entertain, persuade and inform, providing an original opinion without giving away too much of the plot.

1 Start with a compelling fact or opinion on the movie. You want to get the reader hooked immediately. This sentence needs to give them a feel for your review and the movie – is it good, great, terrible, or just okay? – and keep them reading. Some ideas include:
- Comparison to Relevant Event or Movie: “Every day, our leaders, politicians, and pundits call for “revenge”– against terrorist groups, against international rivals, against other political parties. But few of them understand the cold, destructive, and ultimately hollow thrill of revenge as well as the characters of Blue Ruin. “
- Review in a nutshell: “Despite a compelling lead performance by Tom Hanks and a great soundtrack, Forrest Gump never gets out of the shadow of its weak plot and questionable premise.”
- Context or Background Information: ” Boyhood might be the first movie made where knowing how it was produced–slowly, over 12 years, with the same actors–is just as crucial as the movie itself.”
2 Give a clear, well-established opinion early on. Don’t leave the reader guessing whether you like the movie or not. Let them know early on, so that you can spend the rest of the time “proving” your rating.
- Using stars, a score out of 10 or 100, or the simple thumbs-up and thumbs-down is a quick way to give your thoughts. You then write about why you chose that rating.
- Great Movie: ABC is the rare movie that succeeds on almost every level, where each character, scene, costume, and joke firing on all cylinders to make a film worth repeated viewings.”
- Bad Movie: “It doesn’t matter how much you enjoy kung-fu and karate films: with 47 Ronin, you’re better off saving your money, your popcorn, and time.”
- Okay Movie: “I loved the wildly uneven Interstellar far more than I should have, but that doesn’t mean it is perfect. Ultimately, the utter awe and spectacle of space swept me through the admittedly heavy-handed plotting and dialogue.”
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3 Support your opinions with evidence from specific scenes. This is where taking notes during the movie really pays off. It’s hard to sway other people with your opinion if you can’t give facts that support your argument.
- Great: “Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer’s chemistry would carry Fruitvale Station even if the script wasn’t as good. The mid-movie prison scene in particular, where the camera never leaves their faces, shows how much they can convey with nothing but their eyelids, the flashing tension of neck muscles, and a barely cracking voice.”
- Bad: ” Jurassic World’s biggest flaw, a complete lack of relatable female characters, is only further underscored by a laughably unrealistic shot of our heroine running away from a dinosaur – in heels.”
- Okay: “At the end of the day, Snowpiercer can’t decide what kind of movie it wants to be. The attention to detail in fight scenes, where every weapon, lightbulb, and slick patch of ground is accounted for, doesn’t translate to an ending that seems powerful but ultimately says little of substance.”
4 Create an original thesis based on your analysis. Now that you’ve thoroughly studied the movie, what unique insights can you bring to the table? Come up with a thesis, a central idea to discuss and back up with your observations on the various elements of the film.
- Does the film reflect on a current event or contemporary issue? It could be the director’s way of engaging in a bigger conversation. Look for ways to relate the content of the film to the “real” world.
- Does the film seem to have a message, or does it attempt to elicit a specific response or emotion from the audience? You could discuss whether or not it achieves its own goals.
- Does the film connect with you on a personal level? You could write a review stemming from your own feelings and weave in some personal stories to make it interesting for your readers.

1 Follow your thesis paragraph with a short plot summary. It’s good to give readers an idea of what they’ll be in for if they decide to see the movie you’re reviewing. Give a brief summary of the plot in which you identify the main characters, describe the setting, and give a sense of the central conflict or point of the movie.
- When you name characters in your plot summary, list the actors’ names directly afterward in parenthesis.
- Find a place to mention the director’s name and the full movie title.
- If you feel you must discuss information that might “spoil” things for readers, warn them first.
2 Start to talk about the film’s technical and artistic choices. Plot is just one piece of a movie, and shouldn’t dictate your entire review. Some movies don’t have great or compelling plots, but that doesn’t mean the movie itself is bad. Other things to focus on include:
- Cinematography: ” Her is a world drenched in color, using bright, soft reds and oranges alongside calming whites and grays that both build, and slowly strip away, the feelings of love between the protagonists. Every frame feels like a painting worth sitting in.”
- Tone: “Despite the insane loneliness and high stakes of being stuck alone on Mars, The Martian’s witty script keeps humor and excitement alive in every scene. Space may be dangerous and scary, but the joy of scientific discovery is intoxicating.”
- Music and Sound: ” No Country For Old Men’s bold decision to skip music entirely pays off in spades. The eerie silence of the desert, punctuated by the brief spells of violent, up-close-and-personal sound effects of hunter and hunted, keeps you constantly on the edge of your seat.”
- Acting: “While he’s fantastic whenever he’s on the move, using his cool stoicism to counteract the rampaging bus, Keanu Reeves can’t quite match his costar in the quiet moments of Speed, which falter under his expressionless gaze.”
3 Move into your analysis of the movie, Write several paragraphs discussing interesting elements of the movie that support your thesis. Discuss the acting, the direction, the cinematography, the setting, and so on, using clear, entertaining prose that keeps your readers engaged.
- Keep your writing clear and easy to understand. Don’t use too much technical filmmaking jargon, and make your language crisp and accessible.
- Present both the facts and your opinion. For example, you might state something such as, “The Baroque background music was a jarring contrast to the 20th century setting.” This is a lot more informative then simply saying, “The music was a strange choice for the movie.”
4 Use plenty of examples to back up your points. If you make a statement about the movie, back it up with a descriptive example. Describe the way scenes look, the way a certain person acted, camera angles, and so on. You can quote dialogue to help you make your points as well. In this way you are giving your readers a feel for the movie and continuing to express your critique of the film at the same time.
5 Give it some personality. You could treat your review like a formal college essay, but it’s more interesting if you make it your own. If your writing style is usually witty and funny, your review should be no exception. If you’re serious and dramatic, that works, too. Let your language and writing style reflect your unique perspective and personality – it’s much more entertaining for the reader.
6 Bring your review full-circle in the ending. Give the review some closure, usually by trying back to your opening fact or thesis. Remember, people read reviews to decide whether or not they should watch a movie. End on a sentence that tells them whether it’s worth seeing. Try to make your conclusion entertaining, too!
- Great: “In the end, even the characters of Blue Ruin know how pointless their feud is. But revenge, much like every taut minute of this thriller, is far too addictive to give up until the bitter end.””
- Bad: “Much like the oft-mentioned “box of chocolates”, Forest Gump has a couple of good little morsels. But most of the scenes, too sweet by half, should have been in the trash long before this movie was put out.”
- Okay: “Without the novel, even revolutionary concept, Boyhood may not be a great movie. It might not even be “good.” But the power the film finds in the beauty of passing time and little, inconsequential moments – moments that could only be captured over 12 years of shooting – make Linklater’s latest an essential film for anyone interested in the art of film.”

1 Edit your review. Once you’ve finished the first draft, read it through (you can even read it out loud!) and decide whether it flows well and has the right structure. You may need to shift paragraphs around, delete sentences, or add more material here and there to fill out parts that are stunted.
- Ask yourself whether your review stayed true to your thesis. Did your conclusion tie back in with the initial ideas you proposed?
- Decide whether your review contains enough details about the movie. You may need to go back and add more description here and there to give readers a better sense of what the movie’s about.
- Decide whether your review is interesting enough as a stand-alone piece of writing. Did you contribute something original to this discussion? What will readers gain from reading your review that they couldn’t from simply watching the movie?
2 Proofread your review. Make sure you’ve spelled all the actors’ names correctly and that you got all the dates right. Clean up typos, grammatical errors, and other spelling errors as well. A clean, proofread review will seem much more professional than one that’s full of silly mistakes.
3 Publish or share your review. Post it on your blog, share it in a movie discussion forum, put it up on Facebook, or email it to your friends and family. Movies are the quintessential art form of our time, and like all art, they spark controversy, provide a venue for self-reflection, and greatly influence our culture. All this means they’re worth discussing, whether they’re flops or works of pure genius. Congratulations for contributing your valuable opinion to the discussion.

1 Gather basic facts about the movie. You can do this before or after you watch the movie, but you should definitely do it before you write the review, because you’ll need to weave the facts into your review as you write. Here’s what you need to know:
- The title of the film, and the year it came out.
- The director’s name.
- The names of the lead actors.
- The genre.
2 Take notes on the movie as you watch it. Before you sit down to watch a film, get out a notepad or a laptop to take notes. Movies are long, and you can easily forget details or major plot points. Taking notes allows you to jot down little things you can return to later.
- Make a note every time something sticks out to you, whether it’s good or bad. This could be costuming, makeup, set design, music, etc. Think about how this detail relates to the rest of the movie and what it means in the context of your review.
- Take note of patterns you begin to notice as the movie unfolds.
- Use the pause button frequently so you make sure not to miss anything, and rewind as necessary.
3 Analyze the mechanics of the movie. Analyze the different components that came together in the movie as you watch. During or after your viewing, ask yourself what impression the movie left with you in these areas:
- Direction: Consider the director and how he or she choose to portray/explain the events in the story. If the movie was slow, or didn’t include things you thought were necessary, you can attribute this to the director. If you’ve seen other movies directed by the same person, compare them and determine which you like the most.
- Cinematography: What techniques were used to film the movie? What setting and background elements helped to create a certain tone?
- Writing: Evaluate the script, including dialogue and characterization. Did you feel like the plot was inventive and unpredictable or boring and weak? Did the characters’ words seem credible to you?
- Editing: Was the movie choppy or did it flow smoothly from scene to scene? Did they incorporate a montage to help build the story? And was this obstructive to the narrative or did it help it? Did they use long cuts to help accentuate an actor’s acting ability or many reaction shots to show a group’s reaction to an event or dialogue? If visual effects were used were the plates well-chosen and were the composited effects part of a seamless experience? (Whether the effects looked realistic or not is not the jurisdiction of an editor, however, they do choose the footage to be sent off to the compositors, so this could still affect the film.)
- Costume design: Did the clothing choices fit the style of the movie? Did they contribute to the overall tone, rather than digressing from it?
- Set design: Consider how the setting of the film influenced its other elements. Did it add or subtract from the experience for you? If the movie was filmed in a real place, was this location well-chosen?
- Score or soundtrack: Did it work with the scenes? Was it over/under-used? Was it suspenseful? Amusing? Irritating? A soundtrack can make or break a movie, especially if the songs have a particular message or meaning to them.
4 Watch it one more time. It’s impossible to fully understand a movie you’ve only seen one time, especially if you’re pausing it often to take notes. Watch it at least once more before you compose your review. Pay attention to details you might have missed the first time around. Pick new points of focus this time; if you took a lot of notes on the acting the first time you watched the movie, focus on the cinematography the second time around.

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Question How do I format a student movie review? This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow Staff Editor Staff Answer Different instructors will have different expectations about how you format your review. Ask your instructor or take a look at the assignment handout to find out if they have specific instructions. Otherwise, you can search online for samples of student movie reviews online to get an idea. Make sure you look at examples that are appropriate to your school level (e.g., middle school, high school, or college).
Question What should I look for in a movie when writing a review? This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow Staff Editor Staff Answer There are a variety of factors you can look at. For example, if you’re interested in the more technical aspects of the movie, you might pay attention to things like the cinematography, lighting, and sound quality. If you want to take a more artistic approach, study things like the plot, pacing, and acting.
Question If the movie has a lot of main characters, should I write about all of them? You would want to mention the ones that you think are the most important to the plot. Also, don’t give a full detail about their role in the movie-just a sneak peak.

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If you don’t like the movie, don’t be abusive and mean. If possible, avoid watching the movies that you would surely hate.
Understand that just because the movie isn’t to your taste, that doesn’t mean you should give it a bad review. A good reviewer helps people find movie’s they will like. Since you don’t have the same taste in movies as everyone else, you need to be able to tell people if they will enjoy the movie, even if you didn’t.
Structure is very important; try categorizing the different parts of the film and commenting on each of those individually. Deciding how good each thing is will help you come to a more accurate conclusion. For example, things like acting, special effects, cinematography, think about how good each of those are.

Show More Tips Thanks for submitting a tip for review! Advertisement Article Summary X To write a movie review, start with a compelling fact or opinion to hook your readers, like “Despite a great performance by Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump never overcomes its weak plot.” Then, elaborate on your opinion of the movie right off the bat so readers know where you stand.

What are the 5 points of a movie?

Category m2-E7pENfKE “A movie, I think, is really only four or five moments between two people; the rest of it exists to give those moments their impact and resonance. The script exists for that. Everything does.” – Robert Towne When breaking down a film’s structure, generally speaking, ” The Eight Sequences ” framework is the standard: two in Act One, four in Act Two, and two in Act Three,

What is the difference between a film review and a film essay?

In any sector where publishing one’s writing, there are various types into which one can subvert their writing style. The four most basic are expository, narrative, descriptive and persuasive. When it comes to writing for film and media, though, all four of these sorts can be used.

For example, both descriptive and persuasive writing could be used in a review or essay in which the reader’s objective is to convince their audience based on what has been written.
Although film essays and film reviews take the form of a number of writing styles, there are often misconceptions between the two.

Reviews often generally talk to the entire audience who have not seen a film and write in the first-person, whereas the film essay targets an academic audience and has a more specific process with a set of rules. Having briefly outlined the difference between film essays and film reviews, this article will now elaborate on each writing style by answering the following questions – Why do they differ? What are their approaches? How long should they be? Who are the target readers? What is to be included in the main body? What style of language should be used? How do they use exterior sources? What are the results and how should they conclude?

What words are used in film reviews?

Amusing, boring, clichéd, confusing, entertaining, exciting, melodramatic, thrilling, unbelievable arouse curiosity full of tension build up to/reach a climax develop a story interlocking stories/fragmented narrative/non-linear narrative unexpected plot twists One of the most surprising moments in the film occurs when

What are the 5 core elements of film?

Elements of Film: The Graduate:, 936 words Elements of Film is a way to compose every scene in a film and constitute the essence of film. There are five elements of film which is narrative, cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene, and editing. These five elements help determine the film and a way to judge a film.

In the group of The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols, can be determined and judged upon using those five specific elements that constitutes elements of film.
Every movie can be determined by it as it also helps analyze a scene of the movie.
In this case, The Graduate will be judged upon and explained through the elements.

Professional Writers that Guarantee an On-time Delivery experts online The first Element of Film is the narrative. A narrative is similar to the plot of the movie but a narrative is talking about what the movie is, the characters and the world. The whole film follows the protagonist, Ben who is a recent college graduate that doesn’t really know what to do with his life.

The whole film is basically portraying the struggles of Ben as he tries to find his purpose.
He undergoes serious relationship struggles as he has an affair with a fellow family friend, Mrs. Robinson.
Soon after he meets her daughter Elaine; he falls in love with her.
A conflict is risen at this point as the relationship with Mrs.

Robinson is known to both families. Elaine intends to marry another man but Ben arrives and steals her away from the altar. At the end, they both sit in the bus and the look on their faces is the reality of what happened. A narrative is more like story telling as it shows character development.

Second Element of Film is cinematography, which is basically ‘writing in movement’.
It is the way the film was framed, toned and colored in its own way of photography.
Examples of cinematography that was seen in the film and one of them is The Party.
In that scene, the camera gave a response to the audience as it used claustrophobic close ups to the main character, Ben.

It gives the audience the ‘suffocation’ feel that the character itself is feeling throughout the scene. Another example is the Bus scene towards the end. In that scene, the camera takes a long take where we get to see the actor’s performance (Dustin Hoffman who played Ben).

The is able to take in the switch of panic as Ben still at the end of the movie, still doesn’t know what to do.
Although earlier, Ben was eager to find Elaine and the way the cameras portrayed that made the audience feel the pressure and the time of the wedding clicking, as his he struggles through his journey.

The cinematography in the film is great example of showing the audience and connecting them to the character. The cinematography also leans heavily towards point of view. The scene in which Benjamin is floating in the pool on a sunny day and his parents and the Robinsons are staring down at him, the audience can see from Benjamin’s perspective as these four adult figures loom overhead and obstructing their expression.

It depicts Benjamin’s lack of interest in becoming an adult.
He is uncertain about life after college and is unwilling to come into terms with it.
On Benjamin’s birthday party, he is standing in the kitchen wearing scuba diving suite with a mask and oxygen tank in which his father had purchased for him.

As he is walking out toward the pool, the audience sees shots of Benjamin’s perspective as he looks through the goggle and all that can be heard is his own rhythmic breathing. You may also be interested This scene illustrates that Benjamin finds the advices, requests and demands of the elder to be incomprehensive, meaningless and boring.

The partial view through the goggle is an indication of who Benjamin is as a person.
He is an immature young man who only sees what is merely in front of him.
The image of his father encouraging him towards the pool is reflective of his adolescent being steered to a purpose of accomplishment.
Although unwilling, he is walking toward the pool not wanting to disappoint his parents.

He is somewhat obeying his parent’s wishes, but in fact, Benjamin refuses to hear or comprehension what the adults has to say conveying his dissatisfaction with his comfortable sheltered life. His idea of living in a fish tank or under water is somehow comforting to him.

The sound is one of the most powerful aspects in film that has three components to it.
Sound in film has sound effects, dialogue and music.
Music usually shapes the feelings and the perceptions of a scene in a film to the audience.
Dialogue and sound effects go together in a way that they are essential that helps us bring us to the world of the film itself.

In The Graduate, it has a song called “The Sound of Silence” as it is used many times throughout the whole film. It helps us understand the character, Ben, as he tries to find himself in the film. The sound in the film mainly relates to Ben as it translates to his behavior, especially when he goes to search for Elaine.

Mise-en-scene is practically everything that appears in the films’ frame. Everything in the film counts for mise-en-scene. We can see it throughout the whole film of The Graduate. WHen Ben is in his car and when it stops out of gas, that signifies his search is over but he doesn’t give up. There is a motif in the film which is the song, “Here’s to you Mrs.

Robinson” as it is played in the movie. That is another part of the mise-en-scene in the film. What I have noticed in this film, was that the director worked hard to put and try to incorporate ‘real’ life events in the film. The last part of Elements of Film is editing.

A editor of a film works hard to put the whole movie together from all the scenes. Editor is also responsible for cuts being made in the film; scenes as an audience don’t see. An example of editing is during the montage of The Graduate. There you can see how all the scenes connect to each other and how the music goes along with it.

The whole scene shows how the film has captured Ben’s mood the whole time, how he’s drifting from one thing to the next. Its an example from transitions from one scene to the next.100% Customized to Your Need with Expert Writers Using Elements of Film to analyze films, makes us understand their true structure and how they incorporate a big part in the film industry. It is essential for us to understand them in order to understand the film most of the time. In this case, The Graduate was one of the films that was a bit easy to see and understand these elements.

What makes a good movie reviewer?

Professional film critics need to clearly express their ideas and write in an entertaining and informative way for their readership. Study proper grammar, sentence structure, and literary devices to help develop your writing style, and read quality analyses to brush up on proper writing techniques. Build a portfolio.

Can a film review be written in first person?

If you are writing a more personal opinion on the film or trying to convince the reader to side with your arguments (political, social, or moral) you may want to write in the first person point of view. By writing in the first person the reader will know the statements are your own.

What is criticism in movie review?

A movie review is an article that is published in a newspaper, magazine, or scholarly work that describes and evaluates a movie. Reviews are typically written by journalists giving their opinion of the movie. Some reviews include score (4 out of 5 stars) or recommendations (thumbs up).

Since reviews are printed in many different kinds of publications, you may need to search several sources.
A movie criticism is written by a scholar or expert in film studies to discuss the movie within a historical, social, political, or theoretical context.
It differs from the opinion or recommendation that a movie review provides in terms of length, content and focus.

Criticisms can be found in cinema studies journals as well as discipline-specific sources, depending on the plot or themes of the movie. Reviews and criticisms are produced after the release of a movie, whether that is its initial release to theatres, or a release in a home video format.

Nowing the initial release date(s) will help refine your search.
Also note that nationwide release of movies only started in the 1980s; earlier films were released on different dates in different parts of the country.
So a movie reviewed in New York City of Los Angeles may not have been reviewed for months or years later in smaller cities.

The Internet Movie Database is an excellent source for release dates. Finally, movies can be remade, so you will want to be sure you are finding reviews or criticisms for the correct film; knowing the director or major stars will help refine your search results.

How do you write an introduction for a movie paragraph?

2. Introduction – Your introduction will contain essential information about the film, such as the title, release date, director’s name, etc. This familiarizes the reader with the movie’s primary background information. In addition, researching the filmmaker may be crucial for your essay because it may help you discover valuable insights for your film analysis.

What is a good hook for a movie review?

1 Start with a compelling fact or opinion on the movie. You want to get the reader hooked immediately. This sentence needs to give them a feel for your review and the movie – is it good, great, terrible, or just okay? – and keep them reading. Some ideas include:
- Comparison to Relevant Event or Movie: “Every day, our leaders, politicians, and pundits call for “revenge”– against terrorist groups, against international rivals, against other political parties. But few of them understand the cold, destructive, and ultimately hollow thrill of revenge as well as the characters of Blue Ruin. “
- Review in a nutshell: “Despite a compelling lead performance by Tom Hanks and a great soundtrack, Forrest Gump never gets out of the shadow of its weak plot and questionable premise.”
- Context or Background Information: ” Boyhood might be the first movie made where knowing how it was produced–slowly, over 12 years, with the same actors–is just as crucial as the movie itself.”
2 Give a clear, well-established opinion early on. Don’t leave the reader guessing whether you like the movie or not. Let them know early on, so that you can spend the rest of the time “proving” your rating.
- Using stars, a score out of 10 or 100, or the simple thumbs-up and thumbs-down is a quick way to give your thoughts. You then write about why you chose that rating.
- Great Movie: ABC is the rare movie that succeeds on almost every level, where each character, scene, costume, and joke firing on all cylinders to make a film worth repeated viewings.”
- Bad Movie: “It doesn’t matter how much you enjoy kung-fu and karate films: with 47 Ronin, you’re better off saving your money, your popcorn, and time.”
- Okay Movie: “I loved the wildly uneven Interstellar far more than I should have, but that doesn’t mean it is perfect. Ultimately, the utter awe and spectacle of space swept me through the admittedly heavy-handed plotting and dialogue.”
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3 Support your opinions with evidence from specific scenes. This is where taking notes during the movie really pays off. It’s hard to sway other people with your opinion if you can’t give facts that support your argument.
- Great: “Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer’s chemistry would carry Fruitvale Station even if the script wasn’t as good. The mid-movie prison scene in particular, where the camera never leaves their faces, shows how much they can convey with nothing but their eyelids, the flashing tension of neck muscles, and a barely cracking voice.”
- Bad: ” Jurassic World’s biggest flaw, a complete lack of relatable female characters, is only further underscored by a laughably unrealistic shot of our heroine running away from a dinosaur – in heels.”
- Okay: “At the end of the day, Snowpiercer can’t decide what kind of movie it wants to be. The attention to detail in fight scenes, where every weapon, lightbulb, and slick patch of ground is accounted for, doesn’t translate to an ending that seems powerful but ultimately says little of substance.”
4 Create an original thesis based on your analysis. Now that you’ve thoroughly studied the movie, what unique insights can you bring to the table? Come up with a thesis, a central idea to discuss and back up with your observations on the various elements of the film.
- Does the film reflect on a current event or contemporary issue? It could be the director’s way of engaging in a bigger conversation. Look for ways to relate the content of the film to the “real” world.
- Does the film seem to have a message, or does it attempt to elicit a specific response or emotion from the audience? You could discuss whether or not it achieves its own goals.
- Does the film connect with you on a personal level? You could write a review stemming from your own feelings and weave in some personal stories to make it interesting for your readers.

1 Follow your thesis paragraph with a short plot summary. It’s good to give readers an idea of what they’ll be in for if they decide to see the movie you’re reviewing. Give a brief summary of the plot in which you identify the main characters, describe the setting, and give a sense of the central conflict or point of the movie.
- When you name characters in your plot summary, list the actors’ names directly afterward in parenthesis.
- Find a place to mention the director’s name and the full movie title.
- If you feel you must discuss information that might “spoil” things for readers, warn them first.
2 Start to talk about the film’s technical and artistic choices. Plot is just one piece of a movie, and shouldn’t dictate your entire review. Some movies don’t have great or compelling plots, but that doesn’t mean the movie itself is bad. Other things to focus on include:
- Cinematography: ” Her is a world drenched in color, using bright, soft reds and oranges alongside calming whites and grays that both build, and slowly strip away, the feelings of love between the protagonists. Every frame feels like a painting worth sitting in.”
- Tone: “Despite the insane loneliness and high stakes of being stuck alone on Mars, The Martian’s witty script keeps humor and excitement alive in every scene. Space may be dangerous and scary, but the joy of scientific discovery is intoxicating.”
- Music and Sound: ” No Country For Old Men’s bold decision to skip music entirely pays off in spades. The eerie silence of the desert, punctuated by the brief spells of violent, up-close-and-personal sound effects of hunter and hunted, keeps you constantly on the edge of your seat.”
- Acting: “While he’s fantastic whenever he’s on the move, using his cool stoicism to counteract the rampaging bus, Keanu Reeves can’t quite match his costar in the quiet moments of Speed, which falter under his expressionless gaze.”
3 Move into your analysis of the movie, Write several paragraphs discussing interesting elements of the movie that support your thesis. Discuss the acting, the direction, the cinematography, the setting, and so on, using clear, entertaining prose that keeps your readers engaged.
- Keep your writing clear and easy to understand. Don’t use too much technical filmmaking jargon, and make your language crisp and accessible.
- Present both the facts and your opinion. For example, you might state something such as, “The Baroque background music was a jarring contrast to the 20th century setting.” This is a lot more informative then simply saying, “The music was a strange choice for the movie.”
4 Use plenty of examples to back up your points. If you make a statement about the movie, back it up with a descriptive example. Describe the way scenes look, the way a certain person acted, camera angles, and so on. You can quote dialogue to help you make your points as well. In this way you are giving your readers a feel for the movie and continuing to express your critique of the film at the same time.
5 Give it some personality. You could treat your review like a formal college essay, but it’s more interesting if you make it your own. If your writing style is usually witty and funny, your review should be no exception. If you’re serious and dramatic, that works, too. Let your language and writing style reflect your unique perspective and personality – it’s much more entertaining for the reader.
6 Bring your review full-circle in the ending. Give the review some closure, usually by trying back to your opening fact or thesis. Remember, people read reviews to decide whether or not they should watch a movie. End on a sentence that tells them whether it’s worth seeing. Try to make your conclusion entertaining, too!
- Great: “In the end, even the characters of Blue Ruin know how pointless their feud is. But revenge, much like every taut minute of this thriller, is far too addictive to give up until the bitter end.””
- Bad: “Much like the oft-mentioned “box of chocolates”, Forest Gump has a couple of good little morsels. But most of the scenes, too sweet by half, should have been in the trash long before this movie was put out.”
- Okay: “Without the novel, even revolutionary concept, Boyhood may not be a great movie. It might not even be “good.” But the power the film finds in the beauty of passing time and little, inconsequential moments – moments that could only be captured over 12 years of shooting – make Linklater’s latest an essential film for anyone interested in the art of film.”

1 Edit your review. Once you’ve finished the first draft, read it through (you can even read it out loud!) and decide whether it flows well and has the right structure. You may need to shift paragraphs around, delete sentences, or add more material here and there to fill out parts that are stunted.
- Ask yourself whether your review stayed true to your thesis. Did your conclusion tie back in with the initial ideas you proposed?
- Decide whether your review contains enough details about the movie. You may need to go back and add more description here and there to give readers a better sense of what the movie’s about.
- Decide whether your review is interesting enough as a stand-alone piece of writing. Did you contribute something original to this discussion? What will readers gain from reading your review that they couldn’t from simply watching the movie?
2 Proofread your review. Make sure you’ve spelled all the actors’ names correctly and that you got all the dates right. Clean up typos, grammatical errors, and other spelling errors as well. A clean, proofread review will seem much more professional than one that’s full of silly mistakes.
3 Publish or share your review. Post it on your blog, share it in a movie discussion forum, put it up on Facebook, or email it to your friends and family. Movies are the quintessential art form of our time, and like all art, they spark controversy, provide a venue for self-reflection, and greatly influence our culture. All this means they’re worth discussing, whether they’re flops or works of pure genius. Congratulations for contributing your valuable opinion to the discussion.

1 Gather basic facts about the movie. You can do this before or after you watch the movie, but you should definitely do it before you write the review, because you’ll need to weave the facts into your review as you write. Here’s what you need to know:
- The title of the film, and the year it came out.
- The director’s name.
- The names of the lead actors.
- The genre.
2 Take notes on the movie as you watch it. Before you sit down to watch a film, get out a notepad or a laptop to take notes. Movies are long, and you can easily forget details or major plot points. Taking notes allows you to jot down little things you can return to later.
- Make a note every time something sticks out to you, whether it’s good or bad. This could be costuming, makeup, set design, music, etc. Think about how this detail relates to the rest of the movie and what it means in the context of your review.
- Take note of patterns you begin to notice as the movie unfolds.
- Use the pause button frequently so you make sure not to miss anything, and rewind as necessary.
3 Analyze the mechanics of the movie. Analyze the different components that came together in the movie as you watch. During or after your viewing, ask yourself what impression the movie left with you in these areas:
- Direction: Consider the director and how he or she choose to portray/explain the events in the story. If the movie was slow, or didn’t include things you thought were necessary, you can attribute this to the director. If you’ve seen other movies directed by the same person, compare them and determine which you like the most.
- Cinematography: What techniques were used to film the movie? What setting and background elements helped to create a certain tone?
- Writing: Evaluate the script, including dialogue and characterization. Did you feel like the plot was inventive and unpredictable or boring and weak? Did the characters’ words seem credible to you?
- Editing: Was the movie choppy or did it flow smoothly from scene to scene? Did they incorporate a montage to help build the story? And was this obstructive to the narrative or did it help it? Did they use long cuts to help accentuate an actor’s acting ability or many reaction shots to show a group’s reaction to an event or dialogue? If visual effects were used were the plates well-chosen and were the composited effects part of a seamless experience? (Whether the effects looked realistic or not is not the jurisdiction of an editor, however, they do choose the footage to be sent off to the compositors, so this could still affect the film.)
- Costume design: Did the clothing choices fit the style of the movie? Did they contribute to the overall tone, rather than digressing from it?
- Set design: Consider how the setting of the film influenced its other elements. Did it add or subtract from the experience for you? If the movie was filmed in a real place, was this location well-chosen?
- Score or soundtrack: Did it work with the scenes? Was it over/under-used? Was it suspenseful? Amusing? Irritating? A soundtrack can make or break a movie, especially if the songs have a particular message or meaning to them.
4 Watch it one more time. It’s impossible to fully understand a movie you’ve only seen one time, especially if you’re pausing it often to take notes. Watch it at least once more before you compose your review. Pay attention to details you might have missed the first time around. Pick new points of focus this time; if you took a lot of notes on the acting the first time you watched the movie, focus on the cinematography the second time around.

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Question How do I format a student movie review? This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow Staff Editor Staff Answer Different instructors will have different expectations about how you format your review. Ask your instructor or take a look at the assignment handout to find out if they have specific instructions. Otherwise, you can search online for samples of student movie reviews online to get an idea. Make sure you look at examples that are appropriate to your school level (e.g., middle school, high school, or college).
Question What should I look for in a movie when writing a review? This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow Staff Editor Staff Answer There are a variety of factors you can look at. For example, if you’re interested in the more technical aspects of the movie, you might pay attention to things like the cinematography, lighting, and sound quality. If you want to take a more artistic approach, study things like the plot, pacing, and acting.
Question If the movie has a lot of main characters, should I write about all of them? You would want to mention the ones that you think are the most important to the plot. Also, don’t give a full detail about their role in the movie-just a sneak peak.

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If you don’t like the movie, don’t be abusive and mean. If possible, avoid watching the movies that you would surely hate.
Understand that just because the movie isn’t to your taste, that doesn’t mean you should give it a bad review. A good reviewer helps people find movie’s they will like. Since you don’t have the same taste in movies as everyone else, you need to be able to tell people if they will enjoy the movie, even if you didn’t.
Structure is very important; try categorizing the different parts of the film and commenting on each of those individually. Deciding how good each thing is will help you come to a more accurate conclusion. For example, things like acting, special effects, cinematography, think about how good each of those are.