A Framework for Media Opinions
I write a lot of analysis of media, mostly about structural problems with media I genuinely enjoy or want to enjoy, with suggestions for how to fix the problems I see. Stemming out of an interesting discussion, I wanted to write about some of my criteria for how I think about media, and what I look for.
This is mostly applicable to visual media — movies and TV shows. I’m just going to say “movies” and “film” a lot even though many of these things also apply to TV shows. I enjoy and write about a lot of nerdy stuff, so take that context as you will.
For me, a lot of these categories are about how well the people who made the movie convey their vision and whether that vision is any good, enjoyable, or worthwhile in the first place. Not all of these are required in order for a movie to be good or even great, but often in that case it’s that it could have been a lot better and I’m willing to overlook some minor flaws because the rest of it is worth it.
These are not strict categories — there is definitely some overlap. Some of these may also apply very differently to different genres. This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive list, it’s just a survey of the things I think about.
Acting
There are a few main aspects of acting that are interesting to me:
- Are the actors believable in their role?
- Do I see the character in the role or do I just see the actor playing a role? Some actors have a lot of believable range and some just always kind of “play themselves”. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be if the narrative relies on immersion.
- Corollary: Are all of the characters good in their roles? There is significant overlap with world-building and casting here. If most of the actors are building a compelling vision and it’s working across the board, a wrong cameo can just yank the rug out from under that.
- Are the actors conveying that their lines are the things their characters would actually say, or does it seem like they’re just reading the script? This can also be intertwined with the quality of the writing and hard to unravel.
- Corrollary: Do the actors themselves seem like they are present in the world they’re inhabiting? This is related to world-building.
- Are the performances entertaining?
- Are they compelling from an emotional standpoint?
- Is everyone involved having fun with it?
Acting is a hard job and done well it looks effortless.
Direction
In large part, the director’s job is to make sure all of these other things come together, but sometimes directors have more or less control, and don’t always put together the final cut. It may not always be fair to credit a great director for a great movie or a bad director for a bad movie, and I struggle with this. It seems like as a general rule, if the director is prominently associated with the marketing of a movie, they probably had a strong creative impact, but it can be very difficult to tell from the outside how much this is true.
Cinematography
Film can be art until itself. Is the cinematography boring? Do they use the same cliche set of shots. Are the scenes fun to look at? Does the visual look of the film support or fight the story?
Go watch Every Frame a Painting for in-depth dissection of this.
World-Building, Immersion & Belief
When I sit down for an hour or three to watch a movie, I want to feel like the world being depicted… makes sense to me.
Are the rules for the universe internally self-consistent? Usually this question is also “are the rules for how the universe behaves clear and evident?”. This is mostly applicable to sci-fi and fantasy movies where the worlds in the story may have radically different rules from ours, but it can also apply to dream sequences, psychedelics, and the like. Is it clear what’s intended to be real or not, are the narrators reliable or not — these are all shades of the same question. If the answer to those is no, is that intentional and does it work with the story?
Does the movie as a whole give me a sense of immersion and belief — do I feel like this is a depiction of real events that happened or could have happened to real people? Even in a fantastical setting (especially in a fantastical setting), this feeling of plausibility is critical.
World building is also partially about set design, continuity, and special effects. If the world doesn’t look good, or look appropriate, it can break the illusion. Sometimes that matters and sometimes it doesn’t. It also depends on whether it’s an accident or intentional. Hiding a sneaker in the ships in the back of a space battle is a fun easter egg. Seeing a modern cup of coffee on the set of a fantasy show isn’t. I get it, sometimes productions are rushed, there are a lot of things to keep track of, but this does still unarguably reflect in the final product.
Writing & Storytelling (and Editing)
These are often conflated, but I look at dialogue and plot elements as “writing”, while “storytelling” encompasses construction of the narrative, suspense, and pacing. These are two very different skills that are both usually performed by “the writer”, though editing can also play a significant role.
If the dialogue isn’t snappy or the jokes don’t land, that’s a writing problem. If the lines are awkward and don’t sound like normal things that people say, that’s probably a writing problem (but it could also be the acting or direction.
If the characters don’t have believable motivations or events happen that make no sense, that’s bad storytelling. If the pacing is bad, that’s bad storytelling. Telegraphing vs. foreshadowing is a storytelling problem (one of the biggest!).
If I don’t like a movie, it’s usually a good bet that the storytelling is bad, regardless of what else might be wrong with it, and on the flip side, good storytelling can sometimes make a movie entertaining even if other things are very very wrong with it.
Editing is also deeply connected to storytelling and can make or break the movie. How Star Wars was Saved in the Edit is a great breakdown of how important this is, using an example you’ve probably seen.
Music
Personally, I mostly don’t think about film music that much unless it works really well, is very overbearing, or doesn’t work well, but obviously it’s very important for immersion and emotional guidance. Two critical analysis pieces that stand out to me about music are The Marvel Symphonic Universe and Star Wars Minus Williams.
If you enjoyed reading this, read some more things I wrote or come yell at me about it on threads, blue sky, or mastodon.
