You know you've read movie reviews and thought to yourself, "I can do this." Can you? While we all have opinions on the films we see, it still takes skill to craft a quality review. I asked Holly Willis, editor of New Digital Cinema: Reinventing the Moving Image, co-founder of Filmmaker: The Magazine of Independent Film and editor at RES Magazine about what goes into a good review. The author of the Signal to Noise column in LA Weekly gave me the following tips:

In really, really general terms, there are two kinds of reviews: the short capsule review, about 200-250 words, that in five or six sentences gives some sense of the plot, the genre, the directing and writing, and whether the film is worth seeing, with everything that makes a great piece of writing work (strong lede, strong voice, clear stance, appropriateness to reader). The second type, in general, is the extended review, usually 700-800 words, that does all of that, but with more depth and breadth, with more room for analysis or commentary. To be good, each component has to be stellar, so that readers DO know what the film is about and whether it's worth seeing, but almost more than that, they need to enjoy the act of reading what you have to say.

What I tell my students with the shorter reviews is to choose a specific instance to highlight that might possibly stand for the whole, whether it's an example of the film's visual design, performances, sound, editing or story. As an exercise, I encourage them to pick something that might initially seem less pronounced or significant. But if you focus on sound, or on mise-en-scene, for example, you might find a way of talking about the whole film in terms of a specific part, and in unexpected ways...

In the longer reviews, there are three general approaches that move beyond the advice for the short review: how does the film contribute to the director's (or writer's, etc.) existing body of work? How does it contribute to a larger history or context of filmmaking, whether aesthetically or technically? Or how does it function in relation to cultural issues? Obviously, there are many, many other directions, but these are three common ways to consider a film.

Finally, a really important thing to think about is whether or not you are a REVIEWER! If you write reviews, you have to be assertive, even combative, and very willing to hurt feelings. You have to say a film sucks if you think it sucks. And you have to say why. If you're easily swayed by others, or would rather please than displease, you might be much better suited to writing ABOUT movies...

If you want to learn more about Holly's insight, look ahead to this summer and sign up for her course "Writing The Film Review" in Hollywood (where else?)