Professional movie critics tend to fall into two categories: journalists who review recent films for magazines, newspapers and television and academics who teach film studies at colleges and universities and tend to be published in journals devoted to film criticism.
Both academic critics and journalists pride themselves on their love of movies, their knowledge of cinematic history, and their use of analytical tools necessary to read films. Rather than simply explain a movie's plot and say whether they enjoyed it, critics unpack the rich layers of meaning present in many movies. Their analysis may draw on the use of symbolism, cinematography and music to pinpoint a director's style and interpret a film's significance.
Generally, studios invite critics to advance move screenings, so the critics then have time to formulate their reviews. These pieces are published or broadcast on a film's opening day, and many moviegoers rely on them when deciding what to see that weekend. If a studio is worried that critics will give a film bad reviews, they may decide not to hold advance screenings.
A good review can generate big dollars at the box office, especially for smaller-budget films that do not have an enormous advertising campaign behind them. Critics' groups, associations of professional movie critics in regions throughout the U.S., annually vote on their favorite movie, and the results influence which films are nominated for Academy Awards.
The tradition of the educated, erudite movie critic is no longer as important as it once was. Moviegoers looking for a cinematic experience worth their time and dollars can go online and read hundreds of unedited responses from ordinary moviegoers who do not have a professional critic's prejudices about what makes a movie good or bad. The so-called democratization of movie criticism has been a source of heated debate among professional critics, some of whom decry the contemporary lack respect paid to thoughtful analysis. Others argue that criticism is no better or worse off than it ever was; the Internet simply adds more voices to the debate.