Cambridge Scholars Publishing Critical Method and Contemporary Film: Reviewing the Reviewers

This volume offers film enthusiasts and teachers an investigation into what film critics do and examines what ideologies inform their evaluations. By employing recent television programs and films and comparing them to older ones, the study is able to trace changes in the methodologies of film and media critics. The work argues for the emergence of neofuturism as a chosen method of interpretation, contrasting with the dominance of postmodernism as the evaluative method through the early years of the new millennium. It also asks the questions who evaluates film and why? In doing so, the study questions the criteria for film evaluation, the validity of some reviews, and asks the question whether the evaluative system needs to change altogether. About the Author Christopher K. Brooks is the author of more than twenty essays and book chapters, covering subjects from Samuel Johnson’s travels to the theory of doubles in the Terminator films. His later career saw him move into criticism and theory, culminating in his publication of Beyond Postmodern: Onto the Postcontemporary in 2014. His interest in film stems from his teaching film classes at various times in his career, when he saw significant changes in the perspective and values of his film students, especially after 9/11. These changing perspectives inspired him to do research in film evaluation. Semi-retired now, Brooks teaches composition classes at Butler County Community College in Kansas, USA, to keep in touch with the young minds for whom movies are generally made.