Film Analysis vs Review


 

Sometimes, when we want to know what a movie is about, at the simplest level, we might be asking simply for what happens. In that case, we are asking for a film synopsis:

 

FILM SYNOPSIS:

 

 

but sometimes we are interested in what a movie is about, the meaning of a film, at a more complex or deeper level. In those cases, we write or look for TWO different kinds of written responses to movies:

 

 

FILM REVIEW (or film criticism):

 

 

...film reviews, while incredibly useful and important arguments, have a different purpose and different genre expectations than the film analysis. Let's take a look:

 

FILM ANALYSIS (or film theory):

 

 

 

*The quoted definitions above are borrowed from this Intro to Film Theory by Christopher Jacobs, here