1. a) The first review I read was written by Rene Rodriguez from the Miami Herald, and did nothing but praise the movie. She
begins by mentioning some of the important behind the scene people. Next, she
walks through the plot of the story, but with added a few added comments here
and there. Then, because it is a coming of age film, she compares it to the
general coming of age film, commenting on what was typical and what was not so
typical. She ends by talking about the overall performances of the two main
characters and how she feels they did in this movie despite the darkening story
line. The other review I read was written by Kyle Smith from the New York post,
and was definitely not praising the film. He gives a little overview about what
he thought the plot was then continues into a little more detail, but not much.
After he gives a short critique of Miles Teller’s performance, and while doing
that, ends with critiquing another movie by the same director.
b) The tone of the first review was very positive
and uplifting for the film. It did nothing but praise the film in many
different aspects. With the incorporation of description, it made the tone more
captivating. The second review was very dull and negative, although it was not
very strong.
c) The first reviewer, used more descriptive vocab
in her review. She incorporated a lot of different adjectives which made her
review more engaging, more sincere, and more convincing. Also, she did not just
use it when describing the characters, but rather, she used it throughout the
whole review to describe the story, characters, and movie in general. The
negative reviewer did not use much vocab at all to expand his review. It was
very dull, and even though he didn’t like the movie, using stronger vocab would
have been better to convey his message. It was very short, and it did not seem
like he gave it much time.
d) The first review mentioned some other films that
came out during the same time that are in the same genre. When, she mentioned
some of the behind the scenes people, she named some of their other work. Never
at one point did she go into much detail of another film. The second reviewer
mentioned another film by the same director at the end, and in a quick sentence
mentioned a similarity between the two films. Also, he mentions the more recent films that
one of the main actors, Shailene Woodley, had been in.
2. In the first review, Rodriguez states, “The
Spectacular Now has all the
usual elements of the high school movie — prom, homework, keg parties — but
they’re all relegated to the background, used only to render the world its
protagonists inhabit” and I would have to agree because the plot does not rely
on those events to bring the two main characters together. They do play some
part, but they are not major factors in the story line. In the second review,
Smith states that the movie goes from a “Say Anything” but soon turns into
“Drink Anything.’” I do agree that the movie progressively becomes more and
more about drinking, but that is what the movie is about. It’s showing the
effects of alcohol, and in the movie, it gets uncovered layer by layer, how
much of a problem one of the main characters has with it. From the beginning,
the two characters have nothing beyond a relationship of just talking, but it
soon becomes darker and darker, and I think that is what Smith is trying to say
here which I can agree with.
3. If I hadn't seen this movie and was reading the
reviews, the positive review would be more convincing to me because on this
site there are a lot more positive reviews, and the negative one was seemed
pretty random. Also, I wanted to see this and I liked the actors in it, so I
think I would be more open to the positive reviews.
4. If I were to write a review of this movie, I
would first talk about my expectations of it and the mindset I held going into
this. I would include some background on why I saw this movie. I would then
continue by talking about the plot of this movie and what the overall point to
this movie was. I would maybe comment on the actors’ performances and how I
thought they did and if I felt they were the right fit. I would then talk about
my opinion of the movie and what I liked and didn't like about it. For this
particular movie, I didn't like it so, I would say why and what made me feel
this way.
