Research Guides: WRPR 111: Power, Place, and Film (HC): Film Reviews and Background

Getting Started

For the final project, you will be analyzing a film using reviews and critical commentary from journals, magazines and books.

This guide lays out the research tools and strategies for finding film reviews in academic journals, as well as magazines and newspapers. It also shows how to find essays collected in scholarly books. Using effective search strategies on Google will provide critiques addressing targeted audiences. From background sources you can build a larger context that will help you develop significant ideas for your argument.

These different kinds of sources will provide a rich variety of viewpoints that you can oppose, champion and analyze in your paper.

Film Reviews in Magazines, Newspapers and Journals

Articles in Tripod
Search the film name as a Title and the director's name as a Keyword. Example: "get out" [Title] AND peele [Any Field]= 625 results
Refine search to Peer-Reviewed Journals only= 53 results

New York Times
Long considered a standard news source for the country. Coverage from 1851 to the present. For the most recent years, use the New York Times link for access to news, blog posts, videos and more. If you are a first-time user, you will need to create an account. Go to the NY Times Pass Site. It requires a free initial registration but then you will have access with your password for a full year. It can be renewed annually while you are a student at Haverford.
ProQuest Performing Arts Database‎
This database, formerly known as "International Index to the Performing Arts" provides abstracts and full-text to journal articles. Covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry including dance, film, television, theater, opera, and broadcasting. Covers 1864-present.
ProQuest Research Library
Provides citations and full-text magazine and journal articles in a wide variety of disciplines, both scholarly and popular in scope. Covers 1971-present.

Film Analysis in Scholarly Collections

When we look for books in Tripod, we often specify a subject search for the greatest focus. But when finding criticism of novels or films, there is an additional strategy for finding essays published in book form.

Search the titles in quotation marks as keyword searches (Any Field in Tripod): "black panther" [Any Field] AND ((film* OR "motion picture*" OR superhero*) [Subject] Limited to books published 2018-present Results link

Titles include:

Women in Marvel Films. By Miriam Kent. Edinburgh University Press, 2021. Essay: "The (Afro)future of a diverse Marvel : gender, race and empire in Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther. Asgard as a people-racial ambiguity in Thor: Ragnarok's heroines ; Wakanda forever : black femininity and the (Afro)future"

Postcolonial Lack: Identity, Culture, Surplus. By Gautam Basu Thakar. State University of New York Press, 2020. Essay: Chapter Five: "Political Correctness Is Phallic: Idaho Politics, Black Panther and Gran Torino"

Film Resources on the Web

Metacritic
Cites critical reviews from a variety of sources and grades each film by combining scores from individual critics. Links for Black Panther are generally good but several for Rabbit-Proof Fence are no longer working since 17 years have passed since they were published.
MRQE (Movie Review Query Engine)
Site for searching movie reviews online. Note that older films may have out-of-date links for individual reviews.
National Film Preservation Board (Library of Congress)
25 American films are selected each year for the National Film Registry. You can see brief descriptions and, in selected cases, longer essays.
Rotten Tomatoes
Provides a score for each film based on critics' reactions. Connects to selected full texts of film reviews from newspapers, magazines and blogs- see Full Review link.

Background on Black Panther and Argo

"Afrofuturism"
Brief essay and suggested readings on cultural productions that "imagine greater justice and a freer expression of black subjectivity in the future or in alternative places, times, or realities." Written by Daylanne K. English and published in Oxford Bibliographies Online, Literary and Critical Theory.
Oxford Bibliographies Online - Entries Related to Argo
"Historical Film" in the Cinema and Media Studies section
"Hollywood and Politics" in the Cinema and Media Studies section
"Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini" in the Islamic Studies section

Writing about Film

A Short Guide to Writing about Film by Timothy Corrigan
ISBN: 9780321965240
Publication Date: 2014-07-13
Consult chapter three: "Film Terms and Topics for Film Analysis and Writing." Also the tips presented in chapter 5: "Style and Structure in Writing" are useful when you are writing the paper.
Film Art by David Bordwell; Kristin Thompson
ISBN: 9780073535104
Publication Date: 2012-07-06
Film is an art form with a language and an aesthetic all its own. Since 1979, Film Art has been a widely respected introduction to the analysis of cinema. Taking a skills-centered approach, the authors help students develop a core set of analytical skills that will deepen students' appreciation for how creative choices by filmmakers affect what viewers experience and how they respond.
The Film Experience by Timothy Corrigan; Patricia White
ISBN: 9780312681708
Publication Date: Multiple editions
The Film Experience is a comprehensive introduction to film that recognizes students as movie fans while surpassing all other texts in helping them understand the art form's full scope. It captures the complete film experience, situating strong coverage of the medium's formal elements within the larger cultural contexts that inform the ways we all watch film. See what copies are available in the TriCo or request from EZ Borrow using the Borrow beyond Trico page.