Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as — in metonymy — the field in general. The origin of the name comes from the fact that photographic film (also called filmstock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist — motion pictures (or just pictures or "picture"), the silver screen, photoplays, the cinema, picture shows, flicks — and commonly movies.

Films are produced by recording actual people and objects with cameras, or by creating them using animation techniques and/or special effects. They comprise a series of individual frames, but when these images are shown rapidly in succession, the illusion of motion is given to the viewer. Flickering between frames is not seen due to an effect known as persistence of vision — whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Also of relevance is what causes the perception of motion; a psychological effect identified as beta movement.

Film is considered by many to be an important art form; films entertain, educate, enlighten and inspire audiences. The visual elements of cinema need no translation, giving the motion picture a universal power of communication. Any film can become a worldwide attraction, especially with the addition of dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue. Films are also artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them.

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Movies Reviews

Review for Michael Jackson's This Is It - Go - Micheal Jackson "This is it"
I really enjoyed this movie. I took my little nephew and daughter to see this movie and all of us enjoyed it. The sound quality and music were outstanding.
Review for The Twilight Saga: New Moon - Must Go! - Five Word Review
NEW MOON WILL BE AWESOME
Review for Paranormal Activity - Must Go! - TRULY CREEPY...
This movies scared me and my other half down to the core! I believe it's because they used "real" people (not some overpaid Hollywood star) which added much more realism. 'Simple' things that the girlfriend in the movie did like standing there, creeped the hell out of us! The guy who made the film hit the lottery with this low budget/high return film! I highly recommend it!

L.A. Times - Movie Reviews

'Died Young, Stayed Pretty,' about rock poster artists, loses focus
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
Also reviewed: 'Looking for Palladin'; 'The Wedding Song'; 'Victory Day'; 'Yes Men Save the World.' Although "Died Young, Stayed Pretty," a documentary about the underground rock poster movement, begins with a freewheeling array of diverting poster graphics and provocative artist interviews, it soon becomes apparent that there's no real structure or point of view to it all. In fact, by the movie's frustrating second half, it's almost as if director Eileen Yaghoobian (who also produced, shot and edited) decided to become as anarchic as the art she features here and just cut together her remaining footage willy-nilly, viewer engagement be damned.
'Precious' cuts deep
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
The heartbreaking, hopeful tale of an abused, pregnant teen should not be missed. Nothing quite prepares you for the rough-cut diamond that is "Precious." A rare blend of pure entertainment and dark social commentary, this shockingly raw, surprisingly irreverent and absolutely unforgettable story of an obese, illiterate, pregnant black Harlem teen circa 1987 is one that you hope will not be dismissed as too difficult, because it should not be missed.
Robert Zemeckis' 'Christmas Carol': Bah humbug. Too many special effects
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
Jim Carrey plays multiple parts in the motion-capture animated re-imagining of the Dickens' classic. Have you ever wanted to strangle a ghost?

Movies

You Cannot Start Without Me—Valery Gergiev, Maestro
David Denby Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0000
The Film File
La Danse
David Denby Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0000
The Film File
Goings on About Town: The View from Abroad
Richard Brody Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0000
paragraph class="noindent">Hollywood has always been a haven for immigrants with talent. One of the greatest, Ernst Lubitsch, arrived there from Germany in the early nineteen-twenties, not pushed by political turmoil but pulled by money. American wealth is at the heart of his 1938 comedy, “Bluebeard’ . . .

Rolling Stone Movie Reviews

The Box
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:49:39 -0800
Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella Review: I'm not ready to give up on Richard Kelly and his questing intelligence as a filmmaker. Memories of Donnie Darko stay strong, no matter how much Kelly's focus came unglued in 2006's Southland Tales and now, to a lesser extent, in The Box. The premise, drawn from a 1980's Twilight Zone episode itself drawn from Richard Matheson's short story Button, Button, is creepily delicious. The setting is the suburbs of Virginia, near NASA's Langley Research Center. The year is 1976 when NASA's Viking Project became the first U.S. mission to land a spacecraft on the surface of Mars and send photos back to earth. Frank Langella (Oscar nominee for Frost/Nixon) is wonderfully sinister as an elegant stranger with a hole in his cheek who shows up — the box in hand — at the home of... Rating: 2 Stars
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:47:51 -0800
Starring: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Ewan McGregor Review: It's hard to resist a satire, even when it wobbles, that insists the most unbelievable parts are the most true. If you always thought the men who run U.S. military intelligence are wack jobs, here's the farce to prove it. Michigan journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), reporting in Iraq circa 2003, stumbles on a story that dates back to the 1980s, when the government organized a secret unit of psychic warriors devoted to achieving peace through telepathy. These men can stare a goat down till its heart stops. And that's just for starters. Watch them try to walk through walls and read the minds of their foes. Watch Peter Travers review The Men Who Stare At Goats on "At the Movies with Peter Travers" Bob's source is Lyn Cassady, hilariously played by George Clooney... Rating: 3 Stars
Precious
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:44:34 -0800
Starring: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey Review: When I tell people how good this movie is — and I can't shut up about it — they flash me the stink eye. As in "Yeah, right, like I need to sink into a depression coma for two hours watching a fat, illiterate, HIV-positive Harlem girl get knocked up (twice) by her daddy, brutally battered by her mother and laughed at by a world eager to pound abuse on her 16-year-old ass." Watch Peter Travers review Precious on "At the Movies with Peter Travers." Won't you dickheads be surprised. Precious, saddled with a clumsy subtitle — Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire — tunnels inside your head, leaves you moved like no film in years and then lifts you up in ways you don't see coming. Despite the pain at the story's core, the movie has a spirit that soars.... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Rotten Tomatoes: Top Movies

80% Michael Jackson's This Is It
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:05:02 -0800
While it may not be the definitive concert film (or the insightful backstage look) some will hope for, Michael Jackson's This Is It packs more than enough entertainment value to live up to its ambitious title.
85% Paranormal Activity
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:05:02 -0800
Using its low-budget effects and mockumentary method to great result, Paranormal Activity turns a simple haunted house story into 90 minutes of relentless suspense.
23% Law Abiding Citizen
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:05:02 -0800
Unnecessarily violent and unflinchingly absurd, Law Abiding Citizen is plagued by subpar acting and a story that defies reason.

NPR Topics: Movies

Sapphire's Story: How 'Push' Became 'Precious'
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:47:00 -0500
The gritty realism of the film Precious is even more intense in the novel Push, upon which the film is based. Author Sapphire discusses the inspiration for her work — and her initial reluctance to allow her work to become a film.
When Life Is This Hard, Stubbornness Is A Virtue
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0500
Claireece "Precious" Jones is living a nightmare: she's morbidly obese, twice impregnated by her father, mentally and physically abused by her mother. But just as her life seems entirely untenable, fate offers a way out — and slowly, with a mulish persistence, Precious starts to come into her own. (Recommended)
Wal-Mart, Amazon Price War Extends To DVDs
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:18:00 -0500
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is trimming the online preorder prices of some upcoming DVDs following last month's price cut on books. The move led rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Target Corp. to reduce some DVD prices, which pushed Wal-Mart to take a few more cents off its offerings.

NYT > Red Carpet

The Lawsuit Over Producer Credit for 'Crash' Gets Personal
SHARON WAXMAN Thu, 09 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0400
A top executive of the movie academy described one of the producing team behind the best-picture winner, "Crash," as throwing a tantrum in suing over credit for the film.
News Analysis: Los Angeles Retains Custody of Oscar
DAVID CARR Tue, 07 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0400
Los Angeles, a place where race is discussed rarely, saw itself in "Crash," a film where encounter and understanding are just a random fender-bender away.
'Crash' Walks Away With the Top Prize at the Oscars
DAVID M. HALBFINGER and DAVID CARR Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0400
In a stunning twist, the motion picture academy turned its back on "Brokeback Mountain," awarding the Oscar for best picture to "Crash."

Village Voice | Films

Richard Kelly's Flick in The Box
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
The secret is out. Warner Bros. waited to unwrap The Box until two days before its opening because, compared to its madcap predecessors—the psychotic Holden Caulfield update Donnie Darko and the delirious welcome-to-the-21st-century extravaganza Southland Tales&#...
The Men Who Stare at Goats Too Dippy to Be Serious
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Historical cataclysm produces conspiratorial thinking: Germany's loss in World War I, the JFK assassination, and 9/11 are all naturally understood as the stuff of unimaginable plots, unspeakable cover-ups, and unseen forces. The guys who made The Men Who Stare at Goats can't quite ...
First Lady of Film Alice Guy Blaché at the Whitney
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Largely written out of U.S. film history, cinema's first woman director—as well as producer and studio head—Alice Guy Blaché enters the pantheon, or at least the Whitney Museum of American Art, with a three-month, 80-film retro. A French pioneer, Guy Blaché was, for a de...

Film News from Times Online

British film insider top tens
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:01:48 -0000
Julian Fellowes, screenwriter, The Young Victoria, Gosford Park
The 100 Best Films of the Decade
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:01:46 -0000
100 The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006) Meryl Streep begins her own populist career reinvention (soon to be followed by Mamma Mia!) by playing a tyrannical and thinly disguised version of Vogue editor Anna Wintour in this satirical yet soft-centered account of life among the fashionistas.
Michael Haneke: 'It’s super to be number one'
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:01:40 -0000
Michael Haneke on Hidden It’s super to be number one, I’m very happy. I am surprised Caché was a success because it wasn’t an easy film. Perhaps audiences aren’t as stupid as mainstream film-makers often think. I am not preoccupied with surveillance culture, but I hope my films reflect the times they are set in.

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