Internet Review Sources
Useful sites for locating freely available reviews online.
- DVD BeaverOffers reviews of films and especially specific DVD editions available internationally
- Educational Media Reviews OnlineDatabase with subject searching, recommendation rankings, and more for major titles from educational and documentary distributors.
- RogerEbert.comReviews, commentary, and a glossary from Roger Ebert's years as a movie reviewer.
Search Tips
- Film reviews are different from more substantial film criticism. Most are published in the popular press and media, although some film reviews are also published in scholarly journals.
- The quality, audience, and length of film reviews can vary a great deal, depending on the type of publication. Ask yourself, who was this written for? A general population of moviegoers? Scholars? Exhibitors? A specific region of the country?
- When searching newspapers, limiting by date range is a good idea. Other tips: put the title of a film in quotes ("The Plow that Broke the Plains"), and remember that some short films will have limited coverage.
Article Databases with Reviews
Article databases used for finding scholarly criticism also often contain reviews of films, television shows, and DVDs. Below are some of the key databases with review content.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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A multidisciplinary database that indexes over 10,000 publications, with the complete text of over 5,500 periodicals, including a mix of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers. - Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
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Articles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text. - FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Searches film and television articles in the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972-current) and Treasures from the Film Archives, which contains silent film-era listings from archives. - Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
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EIMA is an historical archive of major trade and consumer magazines in film, television, music, radio, and theater, from their inception to 2000. Includes weekly Variety, Hollywood Reporter, American Cinematographer, Back Stage, Billboard, Broadcasting, Picturegoer, Screen International, Spin, and more. UCLA has access to parts I, II and III of this database. - MasterFILE Premier This link opens in a new window
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Designed specifically for public libraries, this multidisciplinary database provides full text for more than 1,750 general reference publications dating as far back as 1975. Also includes biographies, full text primary source documents, and an image collection. - Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
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Full text of current issues (from about 1990) of scholarly journals published by university presses, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to Muse e-books published from 2017-present, plus a selected number of other e-book titles. - Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
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Provides indexing of general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America
