DVD Monthly

So You Wanna Be A Movie Reviewer…

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

As the editor of DVD Monthly, it’s a question I get asked an awful lot – “Can I write reviews for the magazine?” It seems as if there are millions of closet move reviewers out there. It’s always surprised me that whenever we advertise a job, at least half the CVs are from people with no experience, who might have spent decades driving lorries or working as a receptionist, but who really want write about movies.

So for all you aspiring film critics, I thought I’d write down a few pointers to help you with your movie reviewing.

1. There’s a difference between film reviewing and film criticism
Basically a film review is pretty much what you’d think it is – it tells you what the movie is about, whether the reviewer thinks it’s any good or not, and perhaps some of the highlights and low points. Criticism on the other hand takes a wider view. How does a particular movie fit into the world of film? What does it tell us about the state of Hollywood? Are there parallels we can draw from what’s happening in the world at large? If you’ve got the freedom, decent film criticism tends to be more interesting to read, and will allow your reader to go away with more than just whether you thought a particular movie is good or bad.

2. Learn to write
This may seem pretty basic, but there is more to being able to write than having an English GCSE. I’m not talking about learning complex flourishes of language, I mean learning basic English. It may sound unfair, but far too many people who approach us have trouble constructing sentences that can be understood by other people (including many with English Literature degrees or who list their job as ‘journalist’).

I remember hearing Terry Pratchett once say that he thought many writers think that, “Punctuation is something that happens to other people”. There is no way round the fact that even if you won’t ever receive the Nobel Prize for grammar (and in this day and age, absolutely perfect English tends to come across as stilted and false), you need to write in a way that ensures others will understand you. This will only come with practice, and a lot of it.

3. Decide what to write before you write it
There’s nothing worse than reading something where it appears the person was just jotting down whatever came into their head at the time. Even if that is what you are doing, your writing shouldn’t betray that fact.

Decide beforehand what you’re going to say and also what order you want to mention it in. For example, is it best to start with a synopsis, some interesting info about the movie, your opinion of it, or something else? How will the order you write things in affect how the reader understands what you’ve got to say? Deciding what you’re going to say and in what order you’re going to say it can turn a substandard review into something far more special.

4. Have opinions
Again this may seem pretty basic, but it’s surprising how many people pull back from having proper opinions when they’re writing about movies. An opinion is not just stating that you liked or hated something, it explains exactly why.

And beware of qualifiers. A lot of people tend to hedge their bets on their movie opinions with lots of words like ‘perhaps’ or ‘maybe’. While this is sometimes acceptable or even necessary, on most occasions, if you’re so unsure of your own opinion that you feel the need qualify them, you need to think more about those opinions before you write anything down.

5. Remember what type of movie you’re talking about
Different films need to be approached in different ways. Obviously, if you’re writing about a dense, symbolist arthouse movie, you’re going to need to write differently about it than you would the latest Hollywood popcorn flick. Different types of film demand different approaches and different frames of reference.

6. Most people like trash
When I get CVs, particularly from those who’ve studied film at university, most of the covering letters include a sentence that goes something like, “My love of films includes everything from 1920s Danish movies about gerbils, to the abstract work of a Mongolian director who nobody has never heard of.” I’m not saying you shouldn’t love these movies, but if you’re thinking about writing about movies, particularly as a career, you need to remember that the majority of the time you’re going to be writing about low-budget horror movies, whatever Hollywood’s dished up recently and a lot of trash. And there’s a reason you’ll be writing about that – it’s because that’s what most people want to read about. My advice is don’t shut yourself off from the sheer enjoyment side of film, and don’t forget that there is nothing wrong with a film that’s designed purely to entertain (whether it fails or succeeds at entertaining is another matter).

When we do job interviews at DVD Monthly, we always include a film quiz, normally consisting of 10 questions designed to gauge people’s knowledge of the world of film. It’s always interested me that people without a film studies background tend to do better than those who’ve studied movies academically, largely because film studies students have a tendency to shut themselves off from what’s really happening in Hollywood today. When it comes to writing commercially, that’s a big problem.

As a film reviewer, you may occasionally get the chance to proselytise about a little known flick that you think is a masterpiece, but if can’t imagine spending most of your time writing about Bruce Willis action flicks and brain-dead romantic comedies, it’s time to think of a different career.

8. There’s more to reviewing than writing
Again, this applies more to people thinking about movie reviewing as a career rather than just something to do after you’ve watched a film. Many people don’t realise that the actual writing part is a fairly small aspect of the job. As well as watching the films, you also need to know how to research, deal with movie studios and PR companies, as well as plenty of other things that allow the reviews to happen, but which are invisible to the outside world. In many respects the journalism side is the most difficult and can get pretty tedious, so just bear that in mind if you are thinking about trying to become a professional movie reviewer.

9. You aren’t important
I don’t mean that in a Fight Club, ‘You are not a unique and beautiful snowflake’ kind of way, I just mean that when you’re writing about a movie, it’s the reader who’s the important one.

Ask yourself – does anyone really care that you personally didn’t like a particular movie? Probably not. So why do people read reviews? There are several reasons and only one of them relates to the writer directly. The first and most important reason people read reviews is to get information. They want to know what the movie is about, who’s in it and, yes, whether it’s any good. However it’s not your personal opinion they’re looking for, it’s how you came to that opinion, so that they can ask themselves whether they might like the film or not.

It’s also true that a lot of the time people will have made up their minds about a film long before they read a review of it, but reviews with similar or differing opinions act to further their ideas about a movie. There is one reason someone might read a review because of the writer, and that’s because they like their style. But even here you need to remember that people aren’t likely to enjoy your style if your writing makes it appear that you’re more interested in yourself than them.

10. A review is a guide not an absolute statement
Ultimately you need to think of a film review as a guide to whatever film you’re talking about. Your opinions might help to steer people away from duds and towards underappreciated gems, but there are going to be a lot of movies that you hate, but which others will love. Your job as a reviewer is to give the reader enough information so that even if you completely slate a film, they should be able to make up their own minds about whether they’d like to try it. It’s not about trying to force other people to think like you do, it’s about providing information.

And if you’d like to practice your reviewing skills, go to the Reviews section of the site, where you can write your own thoughts underneath ours. Each month we’ll be picking the best reader review and printing it in the magazine, with the writer winning a prize. So have a go, and who knows, you could be a prize-winning film reviewer before you know it.