Film Reviews
Film reviews are usually brief recommendations on the entertainment, cultural, or artistic value of a film. They typically include a plot summary and a few key points about outstanding features of the film. For more scholarly or theoretical analysis of films, directors, genres, etc., please see Finding Books on Film Topics and Periodical Indexes for Film Topics. For more information on the differences between popular and scholarly publications, please see OWL 5.
Many internet sites include or are devoted to film reviews. Check the Library's Movie Reviews page. You may also want to use internet search engines or directories. OWL 3 has information on these resources. The Internet Search Tools page, created by HSU librarian Corryn Crosby-Muilenburg, includes tutorials and general information as well as links to major directories, search engines, and meta search engines.
The Library subscribes to many electronic indexes and databases that are not included in internet search engines or directories. These are available from the Library's homepage on most of the workstations in the Library. They are also available to currently enrolled students, faculty, and staff of Humboldt State University in computer labs, offices, and campus dormitories on the Library's homepage. For instructions on how to connect to these sources from off campus, if you belong to one of the categories above, please see Off Campus Access to Databases.
Here are recommended sources and tips for finding film reviews in them:
- Academic Search (1984- ) - Search for the title of the film, or keywords from it, in All Fields, and the term motion pictures reviews in Subject.
- LexisNexis Academic (1970s- ; dates covered vary; for many publications, coverage begins in the 1990s) - Click the Guided Search tab, then select the news category Arts and
Sports News. Select Book, movie, music, and play reviews as your news source. Search for the title of your film, or keywords from it, in Headline, Lead Paragraph(s) terms. Adjust the dates for the search if possible. You may also use the Sources link at the top of the page to select and search individual review sources such as the New Yorker or the Los Angeles Times.
NOTE: LexisNexis Academic has indexing for many newspapers and magazines. Some of these have their own print indexes. For reviews before LexisNexis Academic coverage starts, use, for example, the New York Times Index, which goes back to 1851. Browse in the abstract and index section of Reference in abstr AI 21 to find the New York Times Index and other newspaper indexes such as the Christian Science Monitor Index, the Los Angeles Times Index, or the San Francisco Chronicle Index. - OmniFile Full Text Mega (1982- ) - Search for the title of your film, or keywords from it, and the word review as keywords.
For reviews before 1982, use Humanities Index, 1974- (Index Table 2) (1907-1974 under other titles) or Reader's Guide, 1900- (Index Table 1). These are some of the print precursors of OmnniFile.
Reference sources also list film reviews; some include reprints. Here are recommended items in our Reference collection:
- Film Review Annual, 1981-2001 (ref PN 1995 F465)
- Film Review Index (ref PN 1995 F467 v.1-2)
- Film Criticism: An Index to Critics' Anthologies (ref PN 1995 H4)
- Motion Picture Guide (ref PN 1995 N 346 1985 v.1-12)
- Motion Picture Guide Annual, 1986-1998 (ref PN 1995 N 3461)
- Variety Film Reviews, 1907-1990 (ref PN 1995 V34 1983 v.1-21)