Member-only story
Write a Movie Review To Practice Your Critical-Writing Skills
The month between the end of the fall semester and the beginning of the spring semester is usually a time of rest, relaxation, and recovery for most students. However, some ambitious students do take a course during the intersession, and others work on their academic skills in an unusual, non-credit-bearing way.
For example, I have had students come to me and ask me to give them a writing assignment. These students are looking for a writing challenge, and they want some feedback on their writing before the new semester begins. Thus, since I want to provide a reasonable task that will not overwhelm the student with research, I will typically ask the student to write a review of the last movie he or she has seen. Writing a movie review is an excellent way to practice the critical-writing skills that most instructors are looking to evaluate. Here are four simple steps to get started.
First, write a short summary of the movie and identify all the key elements: the time and place of the story, the main characters and the actors and actresses who portray those characters, and some of the details concerning the conflict without revealing the resolution of that conflict. After all, you don’t want to reveal the ending to someone who hasn’t yet viewed the movie. For example, I recently saw The Unforgivable (2021), and my short summary of the movie follows.
“After serving 20 years in prison, Ruth (played by Sandra Bullock) is released, and she is searching for her much younger sister, Katie (Aisling Franciosi), a girl who was adopted by another family at age five when Ruth was incarcerated. At the same time, numerous individuals in modern day Seattle are plotting revenge against Ruth for the crime which put her in jail in the first place. Finally, Katie, now known as Katherine, is still traumatized by what happened, has no memory of Ruth, and her adopted parents (Richard Thomas and Linda Emond) have not told her anything about Ruth and do not want her life disrupted by Ruth.”
Second, once you’ve introduced the key elements, you should begin to point out the movie’s strengths, the features…
