“There’s almost nothing I’m more passionate about than helping people understand how, and why, they should read and write more reviews and criticism. I think it’s one of the most important ways that we can connect with one another and make sure that art endures in a culture that seems determined to make sure we all think and act the same way. It’s a way to preserve our humanity and our diversity and vitality. And most of all, it’s fun!”
– Alissa Wilkinson, Five Things I’ve Learned about What Makes a Review Great
About this class: My name is Alissa Wilkinson, and I’m an author, a professor, and a movie critic at the New York Times. I’m so excited for you to join me in discovering what I’ve learned from twenty years of writing criticism about what makes for a great review — and why we keep writing and reading them.
People sure love to say that everyone’s a critic. I started writing reviews professionally two decades ago, and everything has changed since then. Media is digital now. The media landscape has shrunk drastically. For movie critics like me, aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes as well as streaming platforms have completely changed the ways that people interact with our work.
And a lot of the time, I find that people don’t even really know what a review is. They think it’s supposed to be marketing or fangirling for a corporate product. Or they think it’s thumbs up, thumbs down. It’s fresh and rotten. It’s loved it and hated it. It’s me telling the reader what they ought to think, and that they’re wrong if they disagree with me. Sometimes people take a peek at the headline on a review and announce to me that they don’t care what I think, they’re going to watch the movie anyhow.
To which I say: terrific! My goal as a critic is never to tell you what to think — and I don’t know any good critics who want to tell you how to think, either. We’ve got a totally other set of goals, rooted in our huge, all-encompassing love for the art form that we write about. (Why else would we do it? It’s sure not for the money.)
There’s almost nothing I’m more passionate about than helping people understand how, and why, they should read and write more reviews and criticism. I think it’s one of the most important ways that we can connect with one another and make sure that art endures in a culture that seems determined to make sure we all think and act the same way. It’s a way to preserve our humanity and our diversity and vitality. And most of all, it’s fun!
So in this two-hour class, we’ll explore five things I’ve learned from my twenty years as a critic about what makes for a great review, whether you’re a reader or a writer. We’ll think about these five topics:
What a review really is
What a review definitely isn’t
How a review helps us connect with one another
Why reviews help us fight back against the forces that try to divide us
How we can practice great reviewing, even if we’re not professionals
Whether you’re an artist, an aspiring critic, a reader, or just someone who is curious about this whole criticism thing, I hope you’ll join me to discover how vital reviewing and criticism is to the life of art and culture and to our societal moment. You’ll come away with some tools for discerning good criticism, and maybe for trying your hand at your own, too.
Please join me!
– Alissa Wilkinson
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