An Introduction to My Film Criticism - EJE

Greetings my fellow meme-consumers, I am Ean James Elmore and I am going to describe my declaration of principles as a film reviewer here. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I believe in a rating system in order to clarify my ultimate opinion of a film and compare it to other similar films in terms of quality. It is my job to give my opinion on the quality of film, which is easily seen in an academic grading system: A, B, C, D, and F. No pluses or minuses are employed in my system. Oftentimes, a review may focus on a particular flaw or praise that may inflate the quality of a film to a viewer, an inflation that can be done away with through an academic grading system. An A film is that which accomplishes what it set out to do and exceeds expectations. A B film accomplishes its goals but does not exceed expectations in a significant way or has some glaring flaws. A C film either accomplishes what it set out to do, which was not very ambitious to begin with, or has many issues. A D film fails to entertain for the most part but has some admirable qualities. An F film fails in its attempts at entertainment with few or no admirable qualities. I do not place this belief here first on the list because it is the most important but because it is the most popular portion of a review. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I do not believe politics or the “deeper meaning” of a film greatly impacts its quality. Films are not ambassadors of beliefs or sermons, or at least those things do not make film great. What makes film great is the entertainment generated by the film. Entertainment does not simply mean a “popcorn movie,” as films such as Schindler’s List (1993), White Ribbon (2008), and Dogtooth (2009) are entertaining in ways that differ from “popcorn films.” Entertainment is an aesthetic experience between a viewer, images on a screen, and sound from speakers (excluding silent film). Film does not exist beyond those terms. This is a complicated issue, but I hope I have made it clear enough in 98 words here. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I can only tell you if I enjoyed a film as the filmmaker’s intended for me to enjoy it. This primarily entails two things. Firstly, I am not here to tell you the objective quality of a film. Films are subjective from person to person, which is part of the beauty of any entertainment. Secondly, films may be enjoyable in their failures or shortcomings, such as The Room (2003), Fateful Findings (2013), and to a different extent the Labyrinth (1986), but they are not entertaining in a way intended by the filmmakers, which makes them bad or average films from an aesthetic perspective. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I hope my film reviews bring some pleasure to whoever reads them here or watches them on my Youtube channel. Thank you, and I hope you come back again sometime. Godspeed.