Select a recent film and read at least five critical reviews of that film (you can do a comprehensive search for film reviews at Movie Review Query Engine). What criteria does each reviewer apply to the film? Does each consider any coherence, intensity of effect, complexity, and originality displayed by the film? Compare and contrast how their considerations of these elements affect the positive or negative nature of their reviews. Which reviews are most convincing?

Read the following article on the film Speed (Jan de Bont, 1997). Does this assessment of the film attribute referential, explicit, implicit, and/or symptomatic meanings to the film? Pinpoint and discuss as many of these elements as you can identify.

What is the difference between evaluation and interpretation? How does each approach affect what elements of a film you might discuss? To support your answer, read this plot synopsis of American History X, and discuss some potential interpretive and evaluative remarks that a critic might use in discussing that film.

The website Bijou Café presents a rotating collection of short alternative films. Many of these films illustrate the notion that alternative films can often subvert our expectations of formal patterns in a way that mainstream films usually do not. View one of these films (you may wish to watch a few of them to settle on one you'd like to discuss), and consider how these alternative forms are structured. How does the film surprise you or subvert your expectations? Does it have a consistent form and patterns of repeated and varied motifs, or is it relatively unstructured? Does it rely on forms similar to or different from more conventional films?

The chapter explores The Wizard of Oz according to its form. How did filmmakers transfer a children's novel to one of the most successful and popular films in history? What elements does the film contain that appeal to universal audiences all over the world for almost 80 years? Why does the film continue to be successful today? Was The Wizard of Oz innovative and ahead of its time when it was made? How did it inspire films that came after it?