User Guides Subject Guides > General & Reference Film Reviews

Before attempting to locate your film review, you will need to know your film's date of release. If you are looking for a review of a foreign film keep in mind that foreign films are often released later in the United States than in their countries of origin. To pinpoint a release date for your film search the HELIN Library Catalog by title for the call #s of the following Reference books: Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide, Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever, and Time Out Film Guide.

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When utilizing most year-by-year print indexes, in addition to checking the year that your film was released, be sure to check the years before and after as well. If your film was released at the beginning or end of the year, chances are that you will need to check two years.

URI Ref. Z5784 .M9 B64 v. 1-3

Bowles, Stephen E. Index to Critical Film Reviews in British and American Film Periodicals, Together with: Index to Critical Reviews of Books about Film, 1930-1972. 

Volume 1 covers A-M. Volumes 2-3 cover N-Z. Consult the "Bibliographic Abbreviations" and "Periodicals Abbreviations" pages at the front of each volume.

URI Ref. Z5784 .M9 F513 1986 v. 2 

Hanson, Patricia King and Stephen L. Hanson. Film Review Index.  

Indexes film reviews from 1950-1985.Searchable alphabetically by film title. Each title is followed by a list of periodical citations. If you have trouble verifying a film title consult the "Director Index", "Year Produced Index", or "Country Index" at the back of this volume.

URI Ref. Index Area v.1 (1973-)

Film Literature Index.

A yearly subject and author index to review articles as well as analytical articles from international mainstream and alternative film journals. The index is searchable by film title, author of article, subject of film, screenwriter, cinematographer, performer, professional society, and corporation. There is a "Periodicals Abbreviations" list in front of each volume.

URI AI21 .N44 v.1 (1851/1862)-v.15(1912),(1913-1994)
CCE Index AI21 .N44 v.1(1851-)

New York Times Index. 

Depending on the year of the film's release, you will either look for film reviews under the subject headings "Moving Pictures" or "Motion Pictures-Reviews". The Moving Picture subject heading integrates film reviews with film industry articles while the subject heading Motion Pictures-Reviews only lists film reviews. Pay attention to "see also" references.

URI Ref. PN1993 .R48 1975-1995

Review of the Arts. Film and Television.

Published by Newsbank. All reviews have been copied to microfiche and are indexed from national newspapers. Search for your film alphabetically in the appropriate volume and then find the "reviews" section. The citations are to the microfiche cards.

URI Ref. Z5782 .S342 v.4 Parts 1-2

CCE Ref. Z5782 .S342 Pt. 4 V. 1-2

Salem, James M. Guide to Critical Reviews.

Both volumes are alphabetically arranged by film title and cover 1927-1963 or, The Jazz Singer thru Dr. Strangelove. Volume 1 covers A-J and Volume 2 covers K-Z.

URI Ref. Z5782 .S342 Suppl. 1
Salem, James M. Guide to Critical Reviews, Part IV, the Screenplay, Supplement One, 1963 to 1980. 

Arranged alphabetically by film title. Each title is followed by a list of periodical citations.

URI Ref. PN1993 .V36 v.1(1907/1920), v.20(1987/1988)-v.21(1989/1990)

Variety Film Reviews.

These three volumes contain republished film reviews arranged by month date and year as they appeared in Variety magazine.

http://www.uri.edu/library/reference_databases/title.html

LexisNexis Academic.

Includes news from national and international newspapers and wire services and articles from hundreds of periodicals. Most sources are full-text. To search for film reviews click on "news" from the database's main page and then click on "arts and sports". Now click on "more options" and make sure the source list's drop-down menu is still set to "book, movie, music, and play reviews" and select the appropriate date range at the bottom of the screen. To search by film title select the "full text" field. To search by director or actor type in first name first- Steven Soderbergh- and select the "full text" field. Covers latest 10 years.

http://www.uri.edu/library/reference_databases/title.html

Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)

Provides full text for nearly 3,180 scholarly publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities,
education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. Updated daily. Coverage varies by publication, but generally covers the early-to-mid 1990s to present.

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