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The Reviews

10 years ago by

Quick question…
Do you like to read the reviews before or after going to see a movie?

I hate reading them before. It ruins the entire movie when I have my head full of other people’s opinions. Also, I try to not even watch trailers because I like having the most amount of mystery possible when I go see something.

Yeah, okay, I often end up wondering what the hell I’m doing watching another awful movie and why this time I didn’t take a second to read the reviews.

But the thing is that after a movie, I could spend hours reading over all the reviews!

I love seeing who agrees with me, who liked it, hated it, and why, and even what my response would be if we were out to coffee together. Love it.

What camp are you in? Before or after?

Second question: Do you have any critics you love and would recommend to me?

63 comments

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  • I only read them afterwards, from a good source. I also love the mistery but if we are talking about blockbuster mainstream silly movies i read the review just in case. Lately movies are not what they were.

  • i read them afterwards in more cases, as it helps to know what they’re talking about :)

    http://littleaesthete.com

  • I completely agree with you. In fact if I like a film I often avoid reviews afterwards as well because much as I enjoy exercising my critical faculties, sometimes I just want some good entertainment and if I read someone else’s opinion I’ll end up agreeing with the problems they see in it.

  • ouiii tout pareil que toi !
    j’aime bien lire l’express… sinon, allô ciné, qui reprend l’ensemble ;)
    quel est le dernier film que tu aies vu ? moi le biopic sur steve jobs, cet après-midi : pas mal du tout, kutcher très crédible.

  • Contrairement à toi j’ai du mal à aller au ciné sans avoir jeté un œil aux critiques, il me suffit de voir le nombre d’étoiles sur allocine attribué au film par mes critiques préférés pour être presque certaine que le film me plaira ou pas. Ça va sans doute paraître un peu cliché parisien mais je me réfère principalement à Telerama, Positif et Les Inrocks. Ce n’est pas de ma faute s’ils ont les memes gouts que moi ;). J’avoue que les rares fois ou je suis allée voir un film sans rien savoir ou bien juste à la tête de l’affiche, j’ai été déçue… Mais le goût de la surprise est aussi une manière de considérer le cinéma et je te comprends totalement !

  • Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) and David Denby (New Yorker) are my favorite critics, in that order. Have never found myself disagree with a Travers review, actually — he’s good at pointing out what’s simply enjoyable.

  • Je dirai ni l’un ni l’autre. Je ne vais pas très souvent au cinéma alors je ne lis pas tellement les critiques :) Ce n’est pas ça dumoins qui m’attirent pour aller voir un film en particulier. C’est plus le casting, le scénario, l’affiche du film joue beaucoup pour moi aussi. Comme pour la couverture des livres, c’est ce qui me donne envie.
    xx http://wildlysweet.blogspot.fr

  • Oh!! Moi c’est avant…

    Comme je suis une éternelle indécise, je me fis aux critiques pour tenter de faire un meilleur choix. Mais pendant le film je fais le vide et essaie de faire ma propre critique, parfois ca rejoint justement ce que la critique avait relevée.

    Ma critique préférée : Elizabeth Lepage-Boily du site cinoche.com
    C’est un sité québécois, mais les films ca reste les mêmes.

  • christine August, 26 2013, 3:24 / Reply

    I love reading reviews afterward!

    For very bad movies I love to read Anthony Lane’s hilarious reviews in the New Yorker, but I don’t like David Denby as much. Manohla Dargis and David Thomsen are among my favorite living film critics.

  • I don’t read reviews! It’s true that I barely go to movies unless I’m really pulled to one, by concept or director. Like the Hannah Arendt film and Blue Jasmine – I’m super selective but that doesn’t mean I don’t like seeing blockbusters on a huge screen for fun.

    … I just forget and end up accidentally seeing a movie in a theater.

  • same here

  • Moi je les lis avant et après ; avant pour voir de quoi il s’agit car je déteste être déçue. Comme je sais ce qui me plait (genre, acteurs) je trie facilement ; ensuite je relis certaines critiques que j’ai oubliées après coup pour voir si on a vu les mêmes choses… Critiques de Télérama et quelques fois Allo Ciné. Et si un acteur ou un réalisateur m’a vraiment plu (ex Ricardo Darin, Fatih Akin…) alors je vais voir ses autres films sans regarder vraiment les critiques.

  • I tend to read reviews before I see a movie, but after I see a movie that I really like I read all the reviews I can get my hands on and then some.

    I think Anthony Lane over at the New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/anthony_lane/search?contributorName=anthony%20lane) has really grew reviews that are really well written and interesting to read.

  • This is such an interesting topic! I definitely watch a film BEFORE reading reviews. It’s so impossible to avoid hearing about what people are saying about a film though! I just go and be the judge myself, then see what the critics have to say. Usually, I end up agreeing with critics, LOL!
    Your Friend, Jess

  • I hate reading them before. They instantly ruin any excitement I have to see them. I don’t even like it when my friends go to see movies before me, then want to tell me what they think.

    I don’t really even like reading them after, especially if I like a movie. I don’t want someone to come in and point out something that will ruin it for me.

    Case in point: Man of Steel

    I went to see that movie solely because I got to watch Mr. Hot Ass Henry Cavill running around in no shirt and a tight costume. I didn’t give a shit if it was some critically-acclaimed, Oscars sweep of a movie. After walking out of the movie, thoroughly having enjoyed it…when my husband decided to spend the entire ride home talking nonstop about all the things the movie “got wrong.” I’m sorry, I haven’t read a single Superman comic, and I don’t have a film degree – the movie served its purpose for me. I don’t care if it was “authentic to the comics,” and I certainly didn’t care if anyone liked or hated it. But listening to him talk ad nauseum about how bad it was…that kind of killed it for me.

    Never again – the next time I watch a movie because Henry Cavill is in it, I go alone. :-)

    ps – If you’re Henry Cavill and you’re reading this…I thought it was a great movie, and your Midwest accent was incredibly convincing. I should know – I’m from Ohio. ;-)

  • Ms Jane August, 27 2013, 2:23

    Yes. Totally agree. This is why I now go alone to see Daniel Craig as James Bond. I don’t need my husband in my ear saying he looks like a potato!!

  • I agree with you Heather P.- Man of Steel was awesome even if it wasn’t completely true to the comics and I didn’t laugh once the whole movie (intense!) It was visually spectacular and really engaged you!

    Garance – I really like your approach and I’m going to adopt more. Usually when I see the trailer for a movie, I feel disappointed by the actual movie cos it’s nothing like the trailer or because the trailer literally tells you the entire plot and there are no surprises. It’s also so fun, if you’ve really enjoyed a movie, to research it after by reading the reviews – it helps the magic linger on a bit.

  • I never read the reviews beforehand.

  • Alice Bradshaw August, 26 2013, 4:30 / Reply

    Me concernant, uniquement après, et c’est souvent systématique. Notamment quand la fin m’a choqué, ou laissé un doute. Mes critiques préférées sont celles de Inception (tellement tellement d’interpretation) ou de Shutter Island.
    Les film romantique et romanesque comme Anna Karenine aussi me plaisent… :)

    http://alicebradshow.blogspot.fr/
    http://alicebradshow.blogspot.fr/

  • I have the Flixster app for my phone, and I totally rely on the star system. I figure it’s crowd-sourced enough that it’s pretty accurate most of the time. But, sometimes I don’t even care if everyone SAYS it’s going to be awful…I still have high hopes that somehow I will like it. Usually not the case…but what can I say, I’m an optimist :) I will admit that I see alot of movies, but I wouldn’t call myself a movie buff. I think it’s all the cheap $3 pub theaters in Portland…

  • J’aime les bandes annonces.
    Les affiches sont importantes. Une belle affiche, une synopsis peut me faire prendre une place, rarement les acteurs.
    “Pire”, côté réalisateur woody allen me fait rentrer dans une salle….juste parce que c’est Lui.
    Et Nicole Kidman aussi…! C’est assez récent.

  • I am completely the same, all the fun is gone if you have seen the trailer and read the synopsis! I rather watch it and conclude that it wasn’t that good. Xo

  • C’est drôle je fonctionne à peu près comme toi. Je déteste lire les critiques avant d4aller voir un film en revanche je suis prudente avantd’aller voir un film, je me fie souvent à mon intuition … et je me trompe rarement (ouf!). Ensuite je lis les critiques sur les sites des Gaumont, UGC et autres…

  • Les bandes-annonces montrent trop de scènes importantes j’ai l’impression. Je dois dire que même si qu’on me raconte le film je ne sens pas que tout est gâché. Je suis une jeune femme très visuelle donc il faut que je le vois! De plus, je ne suis pas une personne difficile dans les films. J’aime tout avec acception bien évidamment. Les critiques avant et après ça ne me dérange pas parce que mon avis est le seul qui compte et il ne changera pas. :)

  • My favorite sources: The Dissolve (I tend to agree with most of the writers and I feel like they are very fair), Pajiba (especially Amanda Mae Meyncke), Cinesnark, the writers Roger Ebert’s site, Doug Loves Movies podcast. With most of these sources, you get the main stream movies, but also the smaller films that are really enjoyable, but usually go unnoticed.

    I could go on and on about this topic since movies have always been my jam, and I’ve been reading reviews as long as I could read. I’m the nerd that loves watching trailers, but I’m also really picky about them. If I know that I already really want to see a movie and I want to experience it without any type of influence to cloud my opinion (e.g., Before Midnight, Inception), I avoid all reviews, clips, interviews, etc., so I’ll experience it with an open mind and clean slate. But there are movies that I know I want to watch (usually because of an actor or director), but I’m not precious about it, and I don’t mind watching the trailers or peeking at the reviews (though I won’t read the whole review) – those would be Elysium, Skyfall, Marvel movies, anything with Albert Brooks, Terrence Malick, Benedict Cumberbatch, Emma Thompson.

    Then after I watch the movie, I approach my favorite movie sources to see if we agree, get their take on any aspects that might have been confusing, and find out what that movie meant to them. On that note, my favorite movie sources are those that approach movies from a positive place, meaning they want to like movies. I get so turned off my reviews that are snarky or act as if movies have to earn their approval. When I evaluate a movie, I think about what the movie was trying to achieve and whether it was successful in its goal. And I love reading reviews that shift my point of view, even if it’s just a little bit and help me see a movie a different way. When I read a well-written review for a movie that I’ve seen, I feel as if I’m part of a community that celebrates film.

    Reading the comments on this topic, I’m reminded of how much people lean on reviews to guide them. My therapist told me she won’t see a review with less than 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. But I have been led astray with that method – I’ve hated movies that have received overwhelming praise. Also, there are so many hidden gems that have gotten middling to poor reviews, but I think they’re woefully underappreciated (like Joe vs. the Volcano – love that movie to bits!).

  • I never read the reviews; before or after, actually. I see the trailer, and if it looks really cool, I’ll go watch it. Sometimes I’ll hear from so and so that they didn’t like it, and then it makes me think about whether I want to see it. But sometimes the experience of watching a movie–even one you don’t like–is worth it on its own.

  • I don’t read the reviews but I like to see a summary of the overall reviews. http://www.rottentomatoes.com compiles all of the reviews and lets you know the percentage of good reviews there are. I only watch movies that are 70% and up!
    http://liveitinerantly.com

  • Capucine August, 26 2013, 7:45 / Reply

    Mine de rien..très très bon sujet de conversation.

    Je me fis souvent à ce que je “sens ” du film par les acteurs qui sont dedans/le réalisateur, l’affiche et la bande annonce [confession: je passe des heures à regarder absolument toutes les bandes annonces qui sont sur Allocine]

    Je regarde parfois la note générale du film donnée par les critiques (Allocine, Rotten Tomatoes) mais sans vraiment regarder ce qu’ils écrivent.

    C’est après être allé voir un film qui m’a décue ou intrigué que je vais les voir. C’est habituellement qu’il y a un détail bon/mauvais que je n’arrive pas exprimer et que je cherche à voir si d’autres ont la même impression que moi..

    Case in Point : le dernier Batman. Bien que je sois une énorme fan de Batman et de Nolan, il y a plusieurs points dans le dernier que je n’ai pas trouvé cohérents et qui m’ont dérangés. Donc je suis allée voir si les critiques pensaient la même chose que moi..joie de constater que j’étais validée par le New York Post !

  • Jane with the noisy terrier August, 26 2013, 8:04 / Reply

    I always read them after I’ve seen the movie, but I do love watching trailers! My friend Karen always reads reviews before and I have to remind her not to spoil it for me by saying something got a sucky review. But I do like reading reviews afterwards, particularly when I leave the theater unsure if I really liked it or not (Blue Jasmine). And I love dissecting a movie right after seeing it with someone, especially if we have very different opinions. Just saw a preview for Mademoiselle C. Can’t wait!

  • Not only do I not read reviews for movies I am interested in, but I don’t watch any trailers until I see the movie. I will change the channel or close my eyes & cover my ears if the trailer is playing on tv or at the theater so as not to spoil it for me. It may seem weird, but it works for me :)

  • [This is not a plug, but…]

    I go to rottentomatoes.com and look at the percent of “top critics” that gave the movie a good review – anything below 75% and I read a few critics I respect and see if it’s the sort of movie I’ll like even if some people didn’t (I’m very forgiving of rom-coms).

    Thing is, I spend so much less money on movies than I did when I lived in LA – thankfully! I don’t need to see every darn thing just to keep up with conversation. So I want to spend my money and time wisely – not experimentally. The consensus numbers at rottentomatoes seem to be the best way to not waste time while not ruining the surprise.

  • Depends on who is in the film. If the casting is questionable I will most likely read a few reviews first. Also, a marketing tip: a trailer with too much copy or voiceover (“in a land where good meets evil”) is only done when the studio feels the film is lacking box office power. Outsourced marketing firms get paid major dollars to help in that cause.

    http://www.lustcovetdesire.tumblr.com

  • What – are there no fans of wittertainment among the readers of this blog???
    At least at the time I’m posting this, nobody has mentioned Mark Kermode.
    In other words: NYT and New Yorker are doing a nice job (and yes, Anthony Lane’s reviews are a great read – I even own a book with a selection of them, and all the movies are by now old, but it’s still fun to read), but their critics don’t come close to Mark Kermode. His blog, but even more his show with Simon Mayo. I wish I hadn’t heard of their podcast yet, bc then I’d still be in for the treat that is every single episode…
    As for reading reviews – I like to read reviews generally, just to know what’s out there, what’s coming next, who is involved in the projects, etc. I’m a bit more careful about reading the reviews of those movies I definitely want to see. Sometimes, I choose to not read them in advance. Yet – unless it’s a badly written/argued review – I don’t think that the knowledge of the review spoils the movie experience itself, at least not for me – it’s more often the case that reading a review afterwards starts to irk me… Because I, too, have seen the movie, it becomes like a discussion where I have no possibility of voicing my own opinion.
    I generally avoid watching trailers though. They either don’t give you any sense of what the movie is actually about – or (and that happens more and more) they show you all the best (or at least central) scenes from the movie, so they are merely really bad spoilers. What are the people who put them together thinking?!

    Anyway, I love movies. Watching them. Talking about them. Watching them again. And to a certain degree also reading about them!

    And hello to Jason Isaacs!

  • plutôt avant, pourquoi?
    Les places sont devenus très chères! je préfère éviter les déceptions.
    mais j’avoue que l’affiche m’inspire également pour beaucoup par exemple Alabama Monroe ou gare du Nord ont l’air génial.

  • I always google the film name and rotten tomatoes. This brings up the rotten tomatoes rating on the google search page. I just go Byrne rating and don’t read any reviews! I am looking forward to your book coming out. I hope you have a signing in London. Xx Polly

    PS do you remember the outfit you loved a while ago which had a green silky shirt like top and white bottoms (Trager Delaney as one reader pointed out) ? Uniqlo have created a new silk shirt range which has a classic green silk shirt which you may like.

  • I love love love trailers and hate missing them when i go to the movies and in terms of reviews i read them before and sometimes after, usually only when a movie is extremely good or extremely bad. Marc Fennell is an amazingly witty and funny critic who i tend to be on par with when it comes to rating movies so i’ll always stream his reviews before i go see a movie. Margaret and David from “At the Movies” are very good critics as well and worth checking out.

  • j’aime bien rien voir du tout mais avec mon fiancé en revanche pour se decider il faut regarder toutes les bande annonce! j’aime bien regarder les critiques apres avoir vu le film sinon

  • Oh my god garancé I do exactly the same thing that you do, when I read your blog sometimes it seems I write things by myself. I think is something that depends from the fact that we’re both taurus :D yeah I know super silly thing…but I feel instinctly a little bound when a taurus is on my way! :D anyway I hate read reviews before the movie but I LOVE in an insane way spend hours read reviews plus wikipedia’s news about the movie (and I click on all the actors on wikipedia searching I don’t know what), my boyfriend looks at me like I was totally crazy…maybe I am :D
    lot of love Serena fron Italy

  • I did once, and it ruined the whole experience completely so i ever have again. After reading other’s people’s reviews I always either expect something amazing and am then disappointed (sad face) or write it off after reading a bad review, dont go to see it, then watch it years and wonder why i’d never seen this amazing film earlier!

  • après !! comme toi, je préfère découvrir les critiques après.
    par contre, je ne manque pas les bandes-annonces avant de filer au cinéma…
    mais j’adore comparer les avis à la suite de la séance. parfois ça m’aide même à me faire un avis: jamais un film ne vous a laissé perplexe ??
    et puis de savoir aussi, pourquoi je l’ai apprécié… l’ambiance, le jeu des acteurs, la mise en scène, le scénar…
    en fait, ce dont je suis certaine c’est que je n’aurai jamais pu être critique de cinéma !

  • Generalement, je decide d’aller au cinema pour le realisateur, les acteurs et le resume du film, puis je lis certaines critiques de rottentomatoes ou the New York Post. Je suis rarement decue.
    J’ai recemment vu Blue Jasmine qui m’a beaucoup plu.

  • We have the middle way – or rather, pre-kids we did! When we lived in Italy the local cinema showed an English language film every Wednesday evening ..so we went religiously, not caring what we saw..and generally being very surprised and seeing films we would never have normally chosen to see. When we returned to the UK it was a habit we brought back..until life really kicked in! xxx

  • J’ai eu l’habitude de lire les critiques avant, pour me faire une idée, et bien souvent quand j’allais voir le film mon avis différait totalement ! Désormais je les lis après, ou pas du tout…

    xx.

  • Aurélise August, 27 2013, 9:50 / Reply

    Chère Garance,
    Enfin! J’ai tellement hâte de lire votre ouvrage !
    J’aimerai aussi avoir votre sélection de vos clichés préférés (que vous prenez depuis le début). Personnellement j’ai eu des coups de coeur de vos photos et j’aimerai avoir le plaisir d’en découvrir quelques un au grè de votre livre!
    Encore bravo et à bientôt…
    Aurélise

  • Aurélise August, 27 2013, 9:54 / Reply

    Bonjour Garance,
    Bonjour chères lectrices et lecteurs,
    Personnellement, j’aime avoir les critiques des films que j’aimerai voir. D’une part ça me permet de ne pas payer une place de cinéma pour rien, et d’autre part, je suis quasi-sûr ne pas être déçue et de passer un bon moment.
    Ensuite pour les livres, je n’aime pas du tout lire les critiques. Je préfère largement faire ma propre opinion sur l’ouvrage plutôt que d’être influencé par les autres. En effet, nous n’avons pas la même sensibilité, et notre imagination n’est pas du tout similaire.
    VOilà!
    A bientôt,
    Aurélise

  • Je réponds sans hésiter, je lis toutes les critiques avant …et quand le film m’a plu après également , je refais un petit tour pour prolonger le plaisir ..

    Isa

  • Je me renseigne avant, je lis après.
    Avant, en fait ça dépend, mais sauf exceptions rares (Terence malick par exemple ! ou quelques vieux films d’un réalisateur que j’adore) je ne vais jamais voir un film nouveau à l’aveugle. Trop de perte de temps et bien souvent, ça ne serait que répondre à la pression médiatique car, sinon, comment voir les films qui ne bénéficient pas des promos monstres de ceux qui occupent l’espace médiatique ?
    Je ne sais pas comment cela se passe pour le cinéma américain mais en France, on ne voit dans les médias, en affiche etc, que les films dont les budgets promotionnels permettent une telle exposition. Là dedans il y en a qui sont excellents, dans les autres aussi. L’exposition médiatique n’est ni un gage de qualité ni un gage de médiocrité, je n’ai juste pas envie de choisir comme cela.
    Ma routine : le mercredi je checke allociné, je regarde les films qui sont les mieux notés par la presse (en général), ensuite je fouille dans les 2/3 qui m’inspirent : si les “bonnes notes” viennent d’un mix le monde, libération, les inrocks, télérama, l’humanité, la croix (oui oui :) je sais qu’il y a une chance que ça me plaise. Si les bonnes notes viennent de studio magazine, cinélive, l’express et le point, un peu moins !
    Ensuite il y a des films qui ont eu des très beaux avis et qui me déçoivent, et l’inverse.
    En revanche je ne lis pas un seul article avant, comme ça le plaisir reste intact !
    Alors, certes, je ne vais pas voir les films dont tout le monde parle mais qui semblent décevants sur un plan cinématographique, comme Gatsby ou le dernier Gondry (pour qui j’aurais un a priori positif pour le comp). Je ne peux pas en parler, mais ça ne me manque pas !
    Et parfois je tombe sur des pépites où nous sommes 5 dans la salle et je me prends une telle claque que certains films me laissent une empreinte à vie… sans personne pour en parler par ailleurs !

  • I like to read reviews after the fact, particularly for fashion shows on style.com. When I experienced reading a review first, it created a strange feelin in me if I had a different opinion than the reviewer, not to mention it takes away from the pure, individual enjoyment. I really love the Joseph Campbell quote, “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” We can’t help what we love! Or like, or enjoy for that matter. Cheesy dance music, fine. Low brow pop cinema, great. Messy hair, perfect. I value the culture of criticism and reviews, it adds to the cultural conversation, but I would prefer to experience something first, unfiltered, to gauge where my true feelings lie.

  • never read reviews before , or if yes, just very lightly
    I never ever agree with the Rolling Stones review…the movies they rave about I usually end up hating and viceversa
    I kind of agree with The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk , those reviews are in depth even though they do tend to bash Hollywood productions and lean more towards independent movies

    Liberation France is also a good source for indie movies , and if you are curious about Hollywood bashing…one of the most memorable being their terrible review of Oscar darling Argo….Liberation went all bitchy on it and i could not have agreed more on their angle , but when you are in the USA you tend to get influenced by the USA patriotic thing and forget your parameters in favour of the feel-good element that American film goers and Hollywood love.

    I never ever ever agree with The New Yorker reviews

    and I quite recommend the New York Times too , in general, but The Guardian does it better and are funnier . Also the comments on the Guardian tend to be very highbrow and interesting

    I went to see The Butler and wrote about it here http://www.fashionsphinx.com/the-butler/ stunning film

    I love love love reading film blogs and reviews online and comments after i have seen the film

    fashionsphinx.com

  • Disons que je ne vais pas chercher à lire les critiques naturellement…mais parfois elles me tombent dessus au détours d’un magazine ou d’une émission de tv du coup , je tends l’oreille. En général, j’écoute mes 2 amies les plus cinéphiles :)

  • aïe aïe aïe, pour ma part c est du moitié moitié: je lis certaine critiques avant: quand j hésite entre deux films par exemple (et que je n ai le temps d en voir qu un seul!!!), mais pour les films que j avais repéré bien en avance, je ne lis les critiques qu après!!!! tordue quoi! celles de libé et du monde principalement…..et je fuie celles des inrocks que je trouve un peu trop “c est le film pointu du moment avec les acteurs pointus du moment et tu es dépassé-si-tu-n’as-pas-vu-ca!!!!!”

  • I like trailers, even if sometimes they’re the best part of a movie. I usually read reviews, most of all if I’m not particularly interested in the movie I’m gonna watch. I read some reviews of The Great Gatsby before going to see it, but that doesn’t change the fact that I want to see a movie or not. I just read reviews to know the plot of a movie, I usually don’t care about them, even if there’re some critics who usually do a good job. I remember that I once read a very short review of a movie by Almodovar, and basically it told everything about the story, which was supposed to be something that should have been revealed only at the end of the film…

  • April Von Eckfeld August, 27 2013, 4:20 / Reply

    Very often I like films that other people – the general public- don’t. My taste is black, white, and nothing in between, I don’t tend toward what others like simply because they like it but I will pay attention to what people like. I value my own impressions, and what really takes my breath away. Before seeing a film, I can read a review without it impacting my view but I don’t rely on it to determine what I do and don’t watch. Like any business in which you are deeply entrenched, you realize that not all reviews are impartial (after all, they are published, and publishing is a for profit business) and the distribution of a film is informed by so many economic and other factors… and by extension, the review or even the opportunity to have a film reviewed. So if I want an opinion, I will read up on/go to film festivals, synopses, my friends conversations, and following writers, directors, actors, etc. But the experience of surprise and discovery is precious and so, reviews can rob me of this pleasure. In the art world, however, I think reviews are far more interesting, informed, engaging, and creative, but that’s another story and not your question. And in fashion…. yet another.

  • I don’t read reviews. I feel that it takes away from the magic of the film because someone else may be telling you how to think about a film. Also, everyone has their own experience .

  • I never read critics unless they have an amazing wardrobe (like The Great Gatsby… Or Marie Antoinette or Io Sonno il Amore) and I only read those from a fashion related point of view… But i do hear the podcasts from KCRW’s The Treatment, with Elvis Mitchell that he often interviews the director of the film and some great stories about the making and the ideas come to light… It’s Great!

  • Pendant un temps je lisais les critiques avant d’aller au cinéma. Mais sans regarder les BA. Aujourd’hui, je regarde simplement la note que mes “critiques favoris”, c’est à dire 3 ou 4 journaux, ont mis sur le film en question et j’y vais. Et dès que je sors du cinéma, je lis les critiques sur mon smartphone. Le film est encore frai, les détails aussi! Et pour éviter les navets, bien souvent seul le synopsis suffit..

  • Sabine Lili August, 28 2013, 4:34 / Reply

    Je suis fan de l’émission “Le Cercle” sur Canal +. Frédéric Beigbeder y reçoit chaque semaine 6 chroniqueurs (ça va des Inrocks à Cinélive, le Parisien, Figaro,… en passant par l’incroyable Philippe Roulier de Positif). Et j’adore Marie Sauvion, ex-critique au Parisien devenue rédac-chef de Marie France. Elle a l’oeil du critique (et la culture) et ce côté girly qui m’accrochent à chacune de ses interventions ! Je recommande !

  • Je lis toujours les critiques des Inrocks AVANT d’aller voir un film, je n’aime pas du tout les lire après et préfère rester sur une impression subjective et diffuse… Frances Ha a dû plaire au jeunes new-yorkaises..?

  • après, after !

  • I am in the camp of reading and listening to reviews AFTER the movie. I agree with you… i HATE watching trailer and seeing/hearing the opinions of others. I enjoy spending hours of the movie discussing what I loved and hated with the ppl i watched it with… and then listening to the opinion of the gentlemen over at Spill.com on thier opinion of the movie. I SWEAR by spill.com! You have four different men who watched the same movie and it’s cool to listen to who agreed with you the most!

    http://urbanjunglefashion.wordpress.com

  • Je regarde les critiques avant, ça me permet de faire une sélection, j’adore Philippe q Rouiller et Marie Sauvion, ils sont géniaux et partage ma vision du cinéma. Je suis donc leurs conseils, et je ne suis jamais déçu!

  • definitely NO trailers, NO reviews! I don’t even really like to know
    if friends like it or not.

  • Tout pareil que toi, j’aime aller à l’aveuglette au cinéma, et hors blockbusters, ce qui m’y amène souvent, c’est la beauté de l’affiche, c’est futile peut être..
    Bon, parfois, il faut l’avouer, une belle BA vue au ciné, ça peut aussi vraiment donner envie d’aller voir un film qu’on aurait peut être ignoré autrement.

    Bref. Et si ça te dit, même si tu dois être affreusement occupée, j’écris des critiques de film sur mon blog, parfois, souvent…
    xxx

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