Film Reviews - WRPR 101: Finding a Voice - Researching Films (HC)

Writing Program 101 Librarians

		Andy Janco Haverford College Profile & Guides
		Margaret Schaus Haverford College Profile & Guides

Getting Started

For Assignment #2 you will be analyzing critical reactions to one of the two films you will be studying: Black Panther or Rabbit-Proof Fence.

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 signal the significant points in 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 and Newspapers

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]= 345 results
Refine search to Peer-Reviewed Journals only= 28 results

New York Times
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Full-text access to news articles, blog posts, videos, images, and multimedia features. Coverage from 1851-present. Our subscription to the current New York Times is unique in requiring an initial registration but then you will have access whenever you login for a full year. Use the link "New York Times."
If you are looking for articles in the NY Times more than 5 years old, use the "Proquest Historical Newspapers" link for a better search interface.
ProQuest Performing Arts Database‎
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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
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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: "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.
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 the Films

"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 African American Studies Center
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Comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture, coupled with precise search and browse capabilities. Features articles by top scholars in the field, images, primary sources with specially written commentaries, maps, charts and tables, and biographies. See, for example, "African Americans in Comics".

Australian Cinema After Mabo
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See Chapters 1 "Backtracking after Mabo" and 8 "Lost, Stolen and Found in Rabbit-Proof Fence."
Bringing Them Home
1997 government report that drew attention to the practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families. See also the 2017 update to the report.
A Companion to Australian Aboriginal Literature
See in particular the essay, "The Stolen Generations in Feature Film: The Approach of Aboriginal Director Rachel Perkins and Others."