Based on my interviews, I have found that film students and professors tend to hold critic reviews in higher regard than those who are not in the film program. Often times, film students will look to reviews to decide whether or not a film will be worth seeing. These critic reviews are viewed as trusted sources to those in the realm of film because they have worked hard to get where they are in the industry and base their reviews on the same criteria each time. This way, critic reviews prove to contain little to no bias on the critic’s part and therefore are more reliable than the reviews of peers or making a decision based on an actor or advertising. Non-film students and professors tend to rely on other means, leaving critic reviews as a last resort for the information on an upcoming film.
Whether the student or professor is a real film snob or not, they tend to heavily rely on some of the basic peer reviewed websites, which give a rating and synopsis of the film. Some of these websites are on a scale of one to ten, others go by a percentage between zero and one hundred. The majority of film students have told me that they at the very least visit two or three simple review websites. However, a large amount of the film students also admitted to researching more in depth websites with acclaimed critic reviews. I was happy that I found time to interview one of the busiest, but most highly recommended film students, for his work done here at the university. He told me a lot about the process he takes when reviewing upcoming films and the specific reviews that never let him down. I was very happy to learn about more critic reviews that I did not already know about because I feel they will benefit me, considering I have much of the same taste in films as he does.
Although reviews can be very helpful and beneficial to students and professors it is important to find an established website or article because some reviews lack credibility and have little to offer potential audience members. I have read many reviews that were not helpful and had a lack of critical information regarding the film. I talked with one of my film professors who told me about some of his critic review experiences. My professor expressed his passion for reading established critic reviews because they analyze films in specific aspects that we, as viewers, do not ever think about. He has his favorite critics that he always falls back on; however, he has been branching out to other critics that he has more recently discovered. My film professor would not stop stressing the importance of established critics because he has had many bad experiences with new films based on random critic reviews. He told me about a few times in the past when students and other professors have asked his opinion of certain films. On multiple occasions he took his chances and told others what he read about the film, not having seen the film, which ended up not being helpful and horribly wrong. From my own experiences, I cannot stress in words how important it is to read multiple reviews for one specific film and to make sure that the majority of the reviews are held in high regard.
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