I am not your usual film critic, or even your usual film buff who has an opinion on perhaps a million movies. I’m simply someone who has some idea of the cinematic medium and the related crafts (story-telling, screenwriting, editing, etc) that underlie it.
However, it’s the basic output–the story told in cinematic form–and ordinary folk’s reactions that interest me. So what I really want to do here is to propose a simple template that ordinary people can easily understand without mentioning Truffaut or Kurosawa or Cameron for that matter.
So here goes, my initial “Fresh Tomatoes” kinda boilerplate outline:
1. What’s the basic story, in two paragraphs or less. Let me give you an example of the level of detail I’d like included at this point:
Titanic: Luxurious cruise ship is launched, and owners want to claim speed record on maiden trip. Well-to-do girl wants to escape from straitjacketed life with aristocratic fiancé and other ruling-class passengers, falls in love with poor struggling artist travelling on steerage. Girl and boy realize their worlds are too far apart, but pursue secret affair anyway, and decide to remain together once they reach port. Fiancé discovers affair, orders boy locked up.
Ship sideswipes iceberg, starts to sink. Women and children of rich families are given priority in lifeboats. Girl, risking her life, gets off lifeboat, finds handcuffed boy in lower cabin and frees him as seawater floods in. Just as ship finally goes under water, the two jump into freezing-cold sea and hold on to flotsam. Boy dies, girl survives and goes on to become a successful career woman. Decades later, she joins ship salvage expedition, and tells her story to awestruck crew.
Or even a briefer summary, if you want:
Cruise ship is launched, pushed to achieve record speed. Well-to-do but neglected girl on board meets struggling artist. Girl and boy fall in love. Girl’s fiance discovers secret affair, orders boy locked up. Ship sideswipes iceberg, starts to sink. Girl frees boy. All lifeboats taken. The two jump into sea as ship finally goes under. Boy freezes and dies, girl survives and goes on to succeed in later life. Now an old woman, she revisits site, tells story to salvage crew.
Or a summary that’s much more terse (and somewhat boring, truth to tell, for those who already know the story):
On board luxury ship, rich girl falls in love with poor artist. Girl’s fiance discovers affair, locks up boy. Ship sideswipes iceberg. Girl frees boy as ship goes under. Boy dies, girl survives, succeeds in later life, and tells story to salvage crew.
2. Was the story well-told? What are the inherent aspects of the story that strengthen or weaken the narrative?
3. What aspects of the film-making craft helped (or hindered) the story-telling?
4. What do you think is the basic message (or mood, if you’re not into messages) behind the story? How does the message (or mood) help or not help you (or the typical audience) understand, and cope with, similar real-life situations?
5. Minor or technical things (not discussed elsewhere) you absolutely liked about the film, and would like other films to emulate.
6. Minor or technical things (not discussed elsewhere) you absolutely hated about the film, and would like other films not to emulate.
That’s it. All the rest you might want to add, are all up to you, but I think these will just be jargon only a few cinema buffs will understand, and incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo to the rest of the moviegoing hoi polloi like me.