Movie Review Essay Sample: Screening Report on Searching for Sugarman

This work concentrates on criticizing the film Searching for Sugarman. The film is about two fans who decided to go on an adventure to find out whether the stories about their favorite American musician Rodriguez that he was dead were true. They were determined to find out the truth about the origin and existence of their favorite musician. The film was written and directed by Malik Bendjelloul. The director of the film is skilled and understands vastly the various features of video shooting. He has incorporated several aspects of filming such sound, picture editing, story arc, archival footage, cinematography among others. These are the aspects the essay is set to critique and analyze their usage.

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The sound effects in this film are of high quality. The film is properly directed as the sound output is enhanced in a way that it is friendly to the ears of the viewer. The sound output is very friendly and soft enough to make it audible in a given range. The director of the film uses musical sounds in between making the film carry along the strength of music as well as the message. The film also incorporates tactful and more interesting sound effects as the film plays on making the whole film appealing to viewers to continue listening to (Jolliffe & Zinnes, 2006). The film ensures that the voices of the characters are above that of any sounds at the background. In the film, there is a perfect balance of both the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. However, there are scenarios that there are unnecessary noise and squeaking sounds that are less pleasant to the viewers.

The properties of the film as a far as picture editing is concerned outstanding. The resolution of the film is set up in such a way that it is friendly and attractive to the eyes of the viewers. The lighting in the movie is just enough for proper viewing. The supply of light is balanced to distinguish between day and night. The contrast and brightness of the film are standardized and properly set for easy viewing (Dove, 2013). The film director balanced all the light effects perfectly to ensure that the brightness of the film encourages the viewers. The film employed unique and artistic graphics that looked appealing to the eyes of the viewers. The graphical designs were however overused in some cases as the themes at those particular points didnt rhyme with the graphics.

The usage of archival footage in the film is just amazing and interesting. The film director ensures that the archival footage is applied when necessary in the film. There is no overuse of the footage thus making the film an exemplary piece. The use of the archival footage also brings out the intended making the film complete and satisfactory.

The techniques that the film director applies in attaining high-quality cinematography are just amazing. The motions within the film are well choreographed hence bringing the reality in several parts of the film. However, there are some cases where the motions within the film are excessively exaggerated hence killing the reality and actuality of the film. The story arc of the film is interesting a very thematic. It touches on several themes and portrays them as they appear in the current society (Goodridge & Grierson, 2012). The story arcs expounded in the film are short, extended and continuous throughout. There are different story arcs in the film with most of them depending on the characters in the film.

In conclusion, it is important to state that as much as the film has negative feedback in various aspects such as sound and graphics, there is more positivity in the film production. As a result of outstanding features such as quality sounds, unique graphics and well-choreographed cinematography, the film Searching for Sugarman has won several awards worldwide.

References

Goodridge, M., & Grierson, T. (2012). Cinematography. Amsterdam: Focal Press.

Dove, P. (2013). Critique of Critique. Politica Comun, 4(20150915).

Jolliffe, G., & Zinnes, A. (2006). The documentary filmmakers handbook. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.