Film Studies

Roger Ebert (1942 - 2013) was an American film critic, journalist, screenwriter, and author. Known for shows such as Sneak Previews and At The Movies, he also wrote for The Chicago Sun-Times for almost his entire life. Known as one of the most influential film critics in the world, he popularized the "two thumbs up" saying in terms of film. He generally was kinder than most other film critics, generally rating films higher than others did. His use of dry wit and personal anecdotes in his reviews and writings was also something that popularized him.

Andrew Sarris (1928 - 2012) was an American film critique and leading proponent of auteur theory, the idea that the filmmaker has a distinct enough style that they are the artist, and their style is extremely recognizable. His critiques were viewed as rather elitist and subjective, and his work with auteur theory was heavily critiqued, however he restlessly backed it up. He wrote for many papers as a film critic, including Film Culture, The Village Voice, and The NY Film Bulletin. He also taught courses in film at Columbia University.

Jonathan Rosenbaum (1943 - ) is an American film critic. He was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader until his retirement, while also working on some of the most famous film publications in the world, including Cahiers du cinéma and Film Comment. A fierce advocate for looking outside of the United States for influential film, he is a proponent of viewing foreign film and discussing it in the same way that we do American film.

Manohla Dargis (1961 - ) is an American film critic, one of the top film critics at The New York Times. A five time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, she has been hailed as one of the greatest film critics of all times. Her work has appeared in multiple books.

Emanuel "Manny" Farber (1917 - 2008) was an American film critic and painter. He had a distinctive prose style in his writing and set of theoretical ideas that influenced film makers and critics for generations. Known for coining the term "underground film", he was an early advocate of many young filmmakers that were not yet respected, including Andy Warhol. His painting was influenced by his favorite filmmakers.

Dai Jinhua (1959 - ) is a Chinese feminist cultural and film critic. Known for teaching comparative literature, Jinhua has done a large amount of work in film studies through a critical feminist and Marxist lens, examining culture, media, and, specifically, film through the ideas of gender and consumerism and capitalism. She specifically studies Chinese filmmakers and the work that they have done, and how many of them have taken on Western ideas of Asian culture.

Pauline Kael (1919 - 2001) was an American film critic, writing for The New Yorker for many years. Her writing style stressed the aesthetic of writing, dealing with the personal feelings on the film. She takes on an almost autobiographical style in the way she writes, wanting to move away from the commonly academic form of film criticism in prior critics. Her opinions regularly were not the same of her colleagues, and she was not afraid to argue that she was, in fact, the one who was correct. She is renown for reinventing film criticism as we know it.

James Agee (1909 - 1955) was an American film critic, one of the most influential in the world in the 1940s. Writing for Time and The Nation as a film critic, he was also a reviewer of literature and a writer himself. He was a proponent of Chaplin and Olivier when they were not as popular as they are now. His work only became famous post-mortem, but he is now seen as one of the greatest film critics of all time.

Molly Haskell (1939 - ) is an American film critic and renown feminist. Contributing to The Village Voice for a time before moving on to New York magazine and Vogue, she is renown for being an outspoken woman in the field of film criticism, a generally male dominated field. She looks at film both as a critic and as a feminist, working to understand the experiences of women in film and how women are portrayed. Specifically she analyzes the role of gender roles within film.