How to Be a Film Critic in Five Easy Lessons

Christopher K. Brooks

dic 2019 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

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How to Be a Film Critic in Five Easy Lessons addresses the serious matter of the increasing gap between the published opinions of professional film critics and the reception of popular film by traditional movie-goers, especially millennial movie fans. Recent reactions to the low grades emanating from Rotten Tomatoes, the iconic film review aggregation site, have inspired various constituencies to call for significant changes, including some major studio CEOs, some actors, and the readers of reviews themselves. A new generation and breed of film critics is needed, not raised to please baby boomers or Generation X movie fans, but younger viewers who make up 30% of ticket buyers. This study examines all this and offers five categories of film reviewers plying their trade as models of consistency. New critics have to start somewhere, most often in college film classes, and deciding what type of critic one wants to be begins here.

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Christopher K. Brooks is the author of more than 20 essays and book chapters, covering subjects from Samuel Johnson’s travels to the theory of doubles in the Terminator films. His later career saw him move into criticism and theory, culminating in his publication of Beyond Postmodern: Onto the Postcontemporary in 2014 and Critical Method and Contemporary Film in 2019. His interest in film stems from his teaching of film classes at various times in his career, when he saw significant changes in the perspective and values of his film students, especially after 9/11. These changing perspectives inspired him to conduct research on film evaluation. Semi-retired now, Brooks teaches composition classes at Butler County Community College in Andover, Kansas, to keep in touch with the young minds for whom movies are generally made.