Daniel Webster College :: Library :: Locating Film Reviews

*Also see the library's bibliography on Film Directors

SCOPE: Film reviews evaluate a particular work in terms of artistic or aesthetic merit. Character, plot, setting, style, special technical effects, emotional impact are all factors that are considered when appraising a film. This pathfinder includes sources on film theory and criticism. Online resources are also included.

There are sources located in the Reference Section of the Baddour Library that give a general overview or summary of the topic you are researching.
The following is a list of some of the sources available in the library.

OVERVIEW SOURCES

REF PN 1993.45K34 1994 The Film Encyclopedia
REF PN 1993.5.U6H55 1990 History of American Cinema
REF PN 1995.M3 E53 1980 Magills Survey of Cinema

There are also reference sources that focus on specific aspects of the topic whether it be a specific time period in film history, a particular director or movie or a certain type of film genre such as science fiction, suspense, film noir.

The following is a list of specialized sources available in the library.

SPECIALIZED REFERENCE SOURCES

REF PN 1993.5.U6 B7 1990 The Films of the Fifties
REF PN 1993.5.U65 C57 The Films of the Forties
REF PN 1993.5.U6B65 The Films of the Seventies
REF PN 1993.5.U5B776 The Films of the Sixties
REF PN 1993.5.U65V4 1990 The Films of the Thirties
REF PN 1993.5.U65V47 1985 The Films of the Twenties
REF DS 557.73.f76 1990 From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American Film
REF PN 1993.5.U65V4 1989 More Films of the 30s

FILM THEORY (located in the Reference Section of the Library)

Film Noir: An Encyclopedia Reference to the American Style
Film Noir: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference to Movies, Terms and Persons
Key Concepts in Cinema Studies

FILM REVIEW INDEXES

The Film Review Index Vol. 1 1882-1949; Vol. 2 1950-1998 REF Z5784.M9

CIRCULATING BOOKS
(located upstairs in the library; books in this area have the call numbers:
PN 1993-PN 1995)

Some representative books from the circulating collection are:

	Carnes, Mark C. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. New York: H.Holt, 1995. Clemens, John. Movies to Manage By: Lessons in Leadership from Great Films. Lincolnwood, ILL: Contemporary Books, 1999. Cohen, Paula Marantz. Silent Film & the Triumph of the American Myth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
	Grindon, Leger. Shadows on the Past: Studies in the Historical Film. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. Hesley, John W. Rent Two Films and Let's Talk in the Morning: Using Popular Movies in Psychotherapy. New York: J. Wiley, 1998. Kawin, Bruce F. How Movies Work. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
	Palmer, R. Barton. Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994. Prince, Stephen. Classical Film Violence: Designing and Regulating Brutality in Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1968. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003. Rosenstone, Robert A. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
	Shary, Timothy. Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Solomon, Gary. Reel Therapy: How Movies Inspire You to Overcome Life's Problems. New York: Lebhar-Friedman Books, 2001. Wedding, Danny. Movies & Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1999.

JOURNALS, MAGAZINES, & TRADE PUBLICATIONS

Click the link for a list of full-text journals available through our databases in:

Film

Afterimage

Cineaste

Cinema Journal

Open Access Journals in Visual Arts

Film Quarterly Reviews
Film Quarterly is an academic journal published by the University of California Press. It features articles on interviews with writers, producers, and cinematographers, film history, reviews of independent films, documentary films, and avante-garde films as well as book reviews on the latest books published about the film industry. This is a selective listing of some of the more popular films reviewed in this journal. This journal is not indexed in any of the library’s specific databases.

WEBSITES

The Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com/
Thousands of movie reviews, plot summaries, trivia, new releases for the movie buff.

All Movie Guide
http://allmovie.com/
215,000 titles searchable by movie title and personal name and keyword. There is a glossary of film terms and plot summaries and reviews.

Cinefiles
http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/
The Pacific film Archives at Berkeley has been collecting film memorabilia which has been placed online. Cinefiles is a database of reviews, newspaper articles, press kits, etc. Films can be searched by title, subject and genre.

Math in the Movies
http://world.std.com/~reinhold/dir/mathmovies.html
Interesting and entertaining site covering reviews of movies with a math theme. A Beautiful Mind and Good Will Hunting are two of the more recent films covered.

Movie Review Query Engine
http://www.mrqe.com/
Film reviews for more than 28,000 titles. Links to other review sites.

New York Times Movie Reviews
http://movies.nytimes.com/ref/movies/reviews/index.html
"More than 5,000 New York Times movie reviews since 1983, including all Best Picture Academy Award winners, and a selective list of the 1,000 Best Movies."

Updated 08/23/2007