How to be a movie critic
The email I send a lot
For many years, on a very regular basis, I get emails from aspiring film critics who want to know how to get a job being a critic. The short answer is that I have no idea. The very slightly longer one is that you need to think like an entrepreneur, and also have a day job at minimum, and also a little tough love.
So that I have somewhere to direct future inquiries, I’m dropping my usual response here. It’s messy and incomplete, but it’s the pieces I think are most important to keep in mind. Any staff critic working today came up in a different media landscape than the one that young people are enterting today, for better or worse. But these principles are the ones I think are most important.
A note, to begin: Until November 2023 — 18 years into writing criticism — I always had a full-time job that paid more than my writing did, because I don't have any other way of paying my bills.
So this is the advice that I have:
1. First, the most important thing is to learn to write really well. You don't need an MFA or any graduate degrees, but you do need to develop into an excellent writer who understands rhythm, tone, voice, structure, narrator, and all of that in order to succeed. Criticism is not about listing off what's good or bad; it's about making an argument in a beautiful way. Spend time reading good film criticism and figuring out how they do it. I think of everything I write as a new piece of art, and I believe it should be interesting to the reader whether or not they are ever going to see the movie.
2. The next most important thing to remember is that most of film criticism is not writing about esoteric movies from the 1970s or even the films the Criterion Collection puts out. It's writing about Marvel movies and awards bait and a lot of really mediocre movies. If you're not willing or even excited to figure out how to do that and make it interesting, then you won't be able to get anywhere in criticism as a career.
3. Also, you need to learn to write things that aren't reviews. It's basically impossible for freelance writers to publish reviews until they're quite established; most publications have a stable of staff / freelance writers they work with. To break in, you have to get really good at writing trend pieces, profiles, Q&As, critics' notebooks. You have to get good at writing about film but also TV, books, art, all kinds of other things. I didn't write predominately about film till I joined the Times in 2023. Almost nobody does.
4. Next, educate yourself on how to pitch publications as a freelancer. Writing a pitch is a particular skill that you have to get good at, and while I could explain the whole thing right now, the Internet is full of resources to help you learn -- that's how I taught myself 20 years ago when I was just starting out. You just have to be realistic about it: you'll freelance for a long time (I did for a decade) and then, if you're very lucky, you might land a staff job. But many of the freelancers writing today — people whose names you see in major publications and Criterion booklets — once had staff jobs, and then were forced to go freelance when the publication folded, which happens literally all the time. So you need to be versatile, adaptable, and willing to hustle.
5. Finally, there are some basic tips for succeeding as a culture writer. Always turn in work early, or at least on time. Be constantly thinking of ideas you can pitch. Turn in extremely clean copy that you have edited, and possibly had someone else edit too. Do not be precious about edits, meaning let editors do what they do best. Keep in mind that if you're not in a major city, writing about film is probably going to be tricky; you'll have more success writing about TV — that's just how the business is, for now. And have a day job for backup; writing pays next to nothing.
Also, be normal and nice and a team player even when you’re freelancing. That goes a long way.
All that said, nothing is keeping you from starting right now — you can write on a blog or a newsletter/Substack, or in a local paper or on a website or Letterboxd. The question is whether you're willing to do what it really takes to have a career at this, which is far from guaranteed even if you work really hard and do all the right things. If you decide you'd rather only write about films that interest you personally, or that feel significant, that's totally fine — you can do that, enjoy it, and even get pieces published sometimes. But you almost certainly cannot make a career of it that way. I can't think of anyone who does.