movie review

Essay 3 – Culture and Politics

In our first unit, you wrote a descriptive essay on a film by Wong Kar Wai, trying to capture your viewing experiences on the page. In our second unit, you wrote a film review, like the kinds we see published in papers today. In this final unit of our class, we’ll be looking at horror films—and yes, we’ll also be trying to tackle a different form of writing: an academic paper. For many of you, this may be the mode of writing you are most familiar with. It’s probably the kind of essay you wrote in high school? Only now, you’re a better writer, simply by nature of all this practice we’ve been getting. So write an essay that is nuanced, clear (aka not bogged down by overly complex language/syntax), has stakes for the reader, consistent in tone, appropriate for the audience of your peers in academia (this does not mean you have to sacrifice your voice).

Write a film essay that analyzes a film in conjunction with other texts (aka you must use secondary sources). You can explain how one of the film’s formal aspects (cinematography, editing, directing, acting, music) advances an argument about politics, history, society. You can explicitly analyze the relationship between the film and a text. You can use the text to evidence claims you make about the film or vice versa. You can explore the film’s relationship to a certain historical or cultural “moment.” Or all of the above? Really take this in whatever direction you want—the only requirement is that you talk about the film and address its political, historical, or social concerns.

Citations may be parenthetical, in the text, or in footnotes, whatever style guide you prefer really, just make sure it is an accepted style guide and you are consistent. Feel free to use more than one secondary source.