Beyond Popcorn: A Critic's Guide to Looking at Film

by Robert Glatzer

In his engaging book Beyond A Critic's Guide to Looking at Films, Robert Glatzer offers a detailed and insightful look behind the scenes of filmmaking. Written for any movie lover, in a witty and knowledgeable style, this is a basic guide to understanding film. Glatzer deals with movies as an art from, not just as entertainment, and gives the reader valuable insights into just what makes one film better than another. The book has chapters on how a director directs, on styles of comedy, on musicals, and even what all the credits mean. Glatzer analyzes a number of important films, helping readers understand the key elements of writing, directing and acting. This book will make readers into better critics of the films they see. There's even a list and description of what he calls "all the films you have to see before you die." -How a critic's brain works -The difference between acting and acting in films -Deciding where the camera goes -What we learn from Buster Keaton -Why we cry at the movies -What all the other Oscars are about -The greatest films of all time

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Robert Glatzer’s Beyond Popcorn is not particularly good. While it contains some useful factual information about films, it also presents a limited critical view of what makes movies great—for example, in the end-of-book list of 125-150 movies you have to see, 1 is directed by an American who is not white, and 2 are directed by women. Additionally, insight into film is pretty generalized. In a chapter titled “Why Do We Cry at Movies,” the answer seems to be something like: because they make us feel emotions. Glatzer also seems pretty convinced that his opinions of what the “greatest movie”or “greatest actor” or “greatest comic scene” are “without question.” So, this wasn’t really the book for me--but if you like testosterone-fueled movies about manly men doing manly things, you may enjoy it more than I.

[Nathaniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not totally sure what this book is good for. Anything that would seem to be instructive in this book is nearly common sense to anyone who calls themselves a fan of films.