How do I...?
Find Film Reviews
- Determine the release date.
- Reviews are usually written within a year or two following the original release of the film. If you are not sure of the date, search a library catalog or try The Internet Movie Database.
- Search the appropriate databases.
- The Academic Search Premier database covers many subject areas and is a good source for reviews of current movies as well as those released within the past 10-20 years. Try a simple keyword search for the film title. Here's a sample search for reviews of March of the Penguins. First, type the title in the first empty box as shown below.
![[search form]](images/filmreview1.gif)
Second, scroll down the screen to the "Limit your results" area of the search form. Select entertainment review from the "document type" menu. This will limit the results of your title search to just those articles which are entertainment reviews.
![[limit search box]](images/filmreview2.gif)
- Another useful database for finding film reviews is
LEXIS-NEXIS Academic. Log in to the database and select the "News" category from the list of links on the left. Set the search form that appears as in the example below. Enter the title of the film in the first empty box. Set the date as needed.
![[Lexis-Nexis Academic example]](images/filmreview3.gif)
- Consider searching a subject specific database.
- Match the broad subject of the film to a library database that covers periodicals in that subject field. For example, the Science Resource Center database may offer more reviews of a film on a science related topic. The database America: History & Life may offer more reviews of a film about a well known historical figure. More databases and their respective subject areas are listed on our Library Databases by Subject page.
- Search print indexes for older films.
- The following multi-volume reference books are located in the Reference Collection on level 2 of the Emerson Library:
- Film Review Annual [REF PN 1995 .F463 1981-present]
- New York Times Film Reviews [REF PN 1995.5 .E9 N4 1913-1996]
- Variety Film Reviews [REF PN 1995 .V34 1907-1996]