Film Studies Research Guide 

What's Here

This page lists databases and printed books where you can identify film reviews. There is a separate page on locating scholarly articles. Keep in mind that you will need to look at print indexes to find reviews published before the mid 1970s.

Key Databases for Film Reviews

From the Crawford Collection, Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives.

FIAF International FilmArchive Database

See the Articles page for a description of this database..

Film and Television Literature Index

FTLI takes over where the Film Literature Index ends (see below). See the Articles page for a description of this database.

Film Literature Index 1976-2001

See the Articles page for a description of this database.

Film Review Index. Ed. Patricia King Hanson. (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1986)

SML Reference, Z5784 M9 +F554 (LC)
Perhaps the best resource for finding older reviews, consisting of a two-volume comprehensive index of movie reviews from 1882 through 1985.

LexisNexis Academic

LexisNexis Academic provides the full text of numerous newspapers, magazines and much more. To find reviews, select the News tab. Then look in the Sources dropdown list and select Book, Movie, Music, Play, and Video Reviews.

WilsonWeb

A collection of journal and magazine indexes. To find reviews, first select Art Full Text, Art Retrospective, Essay and General Lit, Humanities Full Text, Humanities & Social Sci Retro, Readers' Guide Full Text, and Readers' Guide Retro. Type [name of film] Motion Picture to find articles about particular films. For example: Fargo Motion Picture or Midnight Garden Good Evil Motion Picture. Finally, limit your search to reviews by going to the Document Type dropdown box and selecting Film Review.

Additional Review Resources

You can search the Orbis catalog for sources of film reviews by using the example subject headings below as a guide.

• Motion pictures--Reviews
• Motion pictures--Reviews--Indexes
• Motion pictures--Reviews--Periodicals
• Motion pictures--Brazil--Reviews
• Motion pictures, Italian--Reviews

These subject searches also provide a way to find books which collect reviews, such as Pauline Kael's 5001 Nights at the Movies, and American Movie Critics: An Anthology From the Silents Until Now (ed. Phillip Lopate).

The following list covers additional sources of film reviews, primarily "authoritative" ones but also a handful of "popular" review websites and blogs. Some of these resources list reviews published before the mid 1970s.

Academic Search

Use Academic Search to search for articles in thousands of different scholarly journals and general interest magazines. Coverage extends back to the mid-1980s, and in many cases the full text of the article is available.

Ain't It Cool News

Cashiers du Cinemart

A 'zine website, mostly written by Mike White. Many reviews are available in full text. There are also reviews of other zines, a video gallery, and interviews.

Film Indexes Online

Film Indexes Online is a portal that allows one to simultaneously search both the American Film Institute Catalog and Film Index International. For descriptions of these databases, please see their entries on the Articles page.

Film Threat

Reviews frequently cover cult films, underground shorts, alternative films and independent features.

Films in Review. (New York: National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.) Ceased as of January 1997.

LSF Hae69 +N21b [for 1942-1949] [under the title The New Movies: the National Board of Review magazine]

LSF Hae60 F49 [for 1950-1997]

Online versions: 01/01/1990 to 09/30/1996 (Academic Search Premier)
and Full text only for Jan/Feb 1997 [final issue] (Art Full Text).

Film Review Annual. (Englewood, N.J.: Jerome S. Ozer, 1981-)

Bass Stacks, PN1995 F543 (LC) [most recent volume]
SML Stacks, PN1995 F543 (LC) [previous volumes]
This series reprints film reviews from various resources for each film.

How to Locate Reviews of Plays and Films: a bibliography of criticism from the beginnings to the present. Samples, Gordon. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1976).

SML Reference, Z5781 S19 (LC)

Index to Motion Pictures Reviewed by Variety, 1907-1980. Alvarez, Max Joseph. (Metuschen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1982)

SML Reference, PN1995 A39 1982

International Index to the Performing Arts

See the Articles page for a description of this database.

kamera.co.uk

UK-based website covering arthouse, independent, and world cinema. Features, interviews, reviews, forums, directories, and a bookshop available on their website.

Metacritic

Provides access to and summarizes entertainment criticism available online. Combines the individual critic scores into an overall grade for each item.

Movie Review Query Engine (MRQE)

Simple search engine query webpage for finding movie review articles on film titles. Also browseable by pre-compiled lists of titles by category/awards nominations.

Movie Reviews UK

Reviews of movies, both past and present (including movies outside of the UK).

The New Film Index: A Bibliography of Magazine Articles in English, 1930-1970. MacCann, Richard D. (New York: Dutton, 1975)

SML, Reference Z5784 M9 M29 (LC)

New York Times Film Reviews (New York: Arno, 1970-1998)

SML Reference, PN1995 +N49
Photographic reprints of film reviews as they appeared in the the New York Times from 1913 to the present. The print edition has two parts. The first is a set of volumes covering 1913-1968, with a single name/title index. From 1969-1998, volumes are annual cumulations of articles. The New York Times 1995- and New York Times Historical databases also have film reviews, but they can be much harder to find. See also LexisNexis Academic (above).

Nitrate Online

Full-text reviews and some interviews, mainly of recent films. Some foreign and older movies are also reviewed.

Rotten Tomatoes

Strives to summarize critical reaction on movies by averaging the scores given by its list of critics, who are mostly from accredited media outlets and online film societies.

Variety Film Reviews, 1907-1980. (New York: Garland, 1983-86)

LSF PN1995 +V34 1983

This 18-volume set reprints and indexes reviews from Variety. See also the Index to Motion Pictures Reviewed by Variety, 1907-1980 (above). Online full-text coverage of Variety (from 1993) and Daily Variety (from 1992) is available through LexisNexis Academic (link goes directly to those periodicals); however, the database will not include photos or charts.

Yahoo: Film Reviews