At the Movies, Film Reviewing, and Screenwriting

Selective Affinities and Cultural Mediation

Steven Maras

• Publisher: Intellect Books
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781835951163
• eBook ISBN:
  9781835951170
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Art General

This book examines film reviewing and screenwriting as key sites of cultural mediation, providing new insights on the relationship between criticism and reviewing, as well as the way reviewers handle concepts of story, dialogue and narrative.

Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu on the cultural field and his theory of taste, the book provides an assessment of the place of film reviewing in contemporary screen culture. The book analyses a case study comprised of ten years of television scripts of the Australian film reviewing programme At the Movies (2004–2014). Hosted by two of Australia's most eminent film critics, Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, for over a decade, this study of At the Movies provides a unique window into film reviewing, movie consumption, and wider cultural attitudes in this period of Australian cultural history. It examines the programme's cultural significance, and the contribution of Margaret and David to screen culture.

This book makes a significant contribution to an under-studied area of media studies (the review), screenwriting research through the analysis of broadcast scripts and cultural studies through the study of an important television programme.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• About At the Movies
• Preface
• 1 At the Movies, Reviewing and Screenwriting
• 2 At the Movies and Its Influence
• 3 Arbiters of Taste
• 4 The Politics of Classification
• 5 Three Discourse Frames (Australia, 1987–2002)
• 6 The Discursive Construction of Screenwriting in At the Movies (2004–2014)
• 7 The Well-Made Screenplay: At the Movies as an Aesthetic Enterprise
• 8 In Interview: David Stratton on Reviewing and At the Movies
• 9 In Interview: Margaret Pomeranz on Reviewing and At the Movies
• Appendix 1: Notes on Method, Verification and Exclusions
• Appendix 2: ‘Written by’
• Appendix 3: DVD Classics
• Appendix 4: Selective Reference List of Descriptors used by Margaret and David
• Film and Television Works Cited
• References
• Index