The Last Study Guide
This assignment is due Sunday the 29th of November at 7 p.m.
(as an MSWord email attachment).
Films
(a) Wendy and Lucy, dir by Kelly Reichardt (2008; 80
minutes)
(i) Araby, dir by Joăo Dumans and Affonso Uchoa (2017; 97 mins)
(ii) Into Eternity, dir by Michael Madsen (2010; 57 minutes)
Written Assignment
Your assignment is to select one of the films and write a review of it (no more than 1000 words), and to write capsule reviews of the other two (no more than 250 words).
In preparation for writing your review and capsule reviews, familiarize yourself with good film reviews. To start, go to the NY Times website and the online version of The New Yorker and search for reviews of films we have screened in this course. Also pick at least one film you have seen outside of the course that you judge to be an important film, and look for reviews of that film in these same publications. Other places to look for good film reviews include The Nation and The Guardian, and you are encouraged to look at past movie reviews in these publications also.
As you read and then reflect on whatever movie reviews you read, notice that film reviews—or at least good film reviews—provide a mixture of (i) some degree of plot summary (though many reviews make a point of not revealing the outcome of the plot, that is, they avoid "spoilers"), (ii) an account of the film's message (that is, what the film aims to say), (iii) an assessment of the movie's effectiveness (or lack thereof) in communicating its message, or perhaps an argument that it conveys an unintended message or messages, and (iv) some account and assessment of the movie's crafting in relation to how effective it is in its project or aims.
Prepare your review and capsule reviews as if you were submitting these as
part of a job application to be the film critic for a prominent website or
publication. In other words, you want your prose to be as clean and
concise—as flawless and compelling—as you can make them.
Good
luck and have fun!