Tal­king about mo­vies

What kind of movie is it?

• ac­tion film
• ad­ven­ture film
• come­dy film
• crime&gangs­ter film
• drama film
• his­to­ri­cal film
• hor­ror film
• sci­ence fic­tion film
• wes­tern
• etc.

What is the movie all about?

The movie is about: true fri­endship, fa­mi­ly life, a ho­li­day trip/job, bro­ken home, run­ning away, the pro­blems of gro­wing up, home­l­ess­ness, young cri­mi­nals, being drawn into a cult, war­ti­me ex­pe­ri­ence/events, star­ting a new life, school /edu­ca­ti­on, a per­so­nal cri­sis, vi­si­tors from outer space, im­mi­gra­ti­on, alie­na­ti­on...

The book/aut­hor: deals with, de­scri­bes, fo­cu­ses, cen­ters on, shows, tells about, rai­ses, ex­plo­res, ques­ti­ons, con­fronts the view­er with...

Set­ting (place/time)

Is set in (rural Ame­ri­ca, pre­sent time...)
...​takes place at...
The story be­gins when...

Cha­rac­ters

Major / main / cen­tral cha­rac­ter
Hero / he­roi­ne
Minor cha­rac­ter
A wide va­rie­ty of cha­rac­ters
... go well to­ge­ther
... are por­tray­ed rea­lis­ti­cal­ly Be­lieva­ble/credi­b­le, con­vin­cing, disap­poin­ting, sen­si­tive­ly drawn, exag­ge­ra­ted, un­re­al...
... are con­fron­ted/faced with
... un­der­go a chan­ge
The re­a­der’s sym­pa­thy is with...
You re­al­ly get in­vol­ved with...

Plot/story line

A good sto­ry­line well-de­ve­l­o­ped
Fast-flo­wing ac­tion-pa­cked
Strong fast/slow-mo­ving
Con­vin­cing strai­ght for­ward
Vivid tou­ch­ing
Keeps se­veral sto­ry­lines on the go
Gent­le en­t­hral­ling
Grip­ping haun­ting
Disap­poin­ting pre­dic­ta­ble
Con­fu­sing not the least pre­dic­ta­ble
... has pacy ac­tion
... has a sur­pri­se / un­ex­pec­ted / happy / sad / open en­ding
... has a su­perb twist at the end
End on / with a note of (op­ti­mism, pes­si­mism, des­pair, un­cer­tain­ty…)
The view­er is often one step ahead of the cha­rac­ter(s)

Ci­ne­ma­tic De­vices

Use your ad­di­tio­nal sheets

Lan­gua­ge /style/point of view

Uses col­lo­qui­al, ever­y­day, rough lan­gua­ge, slang ex­pres­si­ons.
Is high­ly emo­tio­nal, witty, hu­mo­rous.
Is seen through sb.’s eyes, told from the point of view of... , told by, told in the pre­sent tense, told in the form of (a diary...).

My per­so­nal re­s­pon­se

It was not what I ex­pec­ted. I was re­al­ly disap­poin­ted. You shouldn’t miss that movie. This is an ex­cel­lent movie. Oh, you sim­ply must watch it. I couldn’t get my eyes off it. One of the best books I’ve ever read.

Great, ex­cel­lent (from start to fi­nish), bril­li­ant, a de­light, a must, tho­rough­ly en­joya­ble, high­ly re­com­men­da­ble, hu­ge­ly en­ter­tai­ning. Re­mar­ka­ble, a good watch.

Makes you want to watch more, has a lot going for it, is bound to make you (laugh), a great movie if you’re into (spine-chil­ling hor­rors, ro­man­ces...), per­fect if you’re loo­king for a movie that sets your ner­ves on edge/ sets the ima­gi­na­ti­on soaring.

...​re­al­ly makes you think, thought-pro­vo­king, full to the brim with (sus­pen­se), has a sa­tis­fy­ing mix­tu­re of (ro­mance and hor­ror), of­fers a touch of (hor­ror...), ra­ther con­fu­sing, not al­ways an easy read, hard/dif­fi­cult to read, too chal­len­ging, bo­ring/dull, to­tal­ly un­be­lieva­ble, not in­te­res­ting at all, not my cup of tea...