What makes a good film?

To understand what is a “good” film, we must first define the medium. Film is the combination of multiple types of media, audio, visual, and written, combined into a single format. For this essay, I will only be discussing the traditional American film standards because motion pictures as a whole are too complex to be categorized as “good” or “bad.” Film is an art, and like any other, the primary goal is to create emotion in the audience. The purpose of that emotion may be to entertain, educate, or empathize, but no matter what the film wants you to feel, it must fit certain standards to qualify as a film by our definition. First, it must be a narrative, connected by cause and effect. Second, by our definition, it must be 40 minutes or more (often ranging from an hour to 3 hours). Beyond that, we look at two interconnected ideas to understand and critique these films: experience and expectations.

Experience

Experience is what most people pay attention to when they critique films. It might not require too much deep thought to understand and can be inherent in the movie-watching experience. It has three subcategories: Narrative, Beauty, and Personal Effect. 

Narrative

The narrative is the backbone of a good film. Good film narratives have visual storytelling, narrative depth, and immersion, but first, let’s define what narrative is. According to Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film, “At the broadest conceptual level, narrative is a cinematic structure in which the filmmakers have selected and arranged events in a cause-and-effect sequence occurring over time” (Dave Monahan, 109). As we said before, narrative is at the core of what makes a film a film. Narrative is made from a combination of plot and story, where plot is the events that happen, and story is the emotions and characters behind it. Both plot and story are absolutely essential to a good narrative film.

Visual storytelling is any aspect of plot or story that is visually shown on screen. You’ve probably heard your English teacher say the phrase “show don’t tell.” Well, they are telling you to engage in visual storytelling. Visual Storytelling is closely intertwined with emersion in that it encourages you to experience the narrative firsthand. Films like Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) are famous because of their excellent use of visual storytelling. Here is a quote from the book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, by Syd Field where he talks about Citizen Kane and its visual storytelling:

“Kane’s marriage is revealed in one incredible sequence, which begins with the marriage and honeymoon of Kane and his first wife. In the next cut, we see them at breakfast having an intimate conversation. There is a swish pan (the camera swishes quickly out of the frame) and we see them in different clothes talking and reading the paper at breakfast. Swish pan and we see them at a slightly larger table having a very heated discussion. Swish pan to them having a more vocal argument about his spending so much time at his newspaper. Swish pan to them at a much larger table, both silent, both reading the paper, he reading the Inquirer, she reading the Post, his primary competitor. She asks him something and he simply grunts in reply. Swish pan to them at a very long table eating in total silence. A significant period of time covered in about a minute. The sequence tells us so much about their relationship, and it’s all done in brief shots, using pictures instead of words.”

–SCREENPLAY: THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCREENWRITING, SYD FIELD, PAGE 53

This sequence is pure cinema; It’s a prime example of Visual Storytelling with a potent and efficient message in the film.

Narrative Depth is the complexity and weight behind the narrative. We will explain narrative depth in reference to message and complexity. The message of a film is the explicit, implicit, and ideological meanings. The explicit meaning is the inherent meaning of a narrative. For an example, let’s look at Everything Everywhere All At Once (The Daniels, 2022). The explicit meaning is that Evelyn, the owner of a laundromat must travel dimensions to stop her daughter from destroying the multiverse. The implicit meaning is the implied meaning that is hidden just under the surface. In this case, as I understand, It would be that the beautiful moments are worth the bad, and suicide is not the answer. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film defines Ideological meaning as when a film communicates beliefs in relation to “social, political, economic, religious, philosophical, psychological, and sexual forces” (Dave Monahan, 319).  I believe in Everywhere All At Once, the ideological meaning is about coping with the overstimulation and information overload of the internet age and the existential message that you have agency in your life and are free to make your own meaning despite the pressures of society and the apparent absurdity of the universe.

Narrative Complexity is the intricacy of how a story is told. Oliver Kroener says, in Breaking Narrative: Narrative Complexity In Contemporary Television, in relation to television, complex narratives “frequently employ specific narrative devices such as flashbacks, flashforwards, time jumps, and cold opens and encourage viewers to engage with complex characters” (Oliver Kroener, 9). I believe the same qualities apply to complex film narratives. For example, the story of Citizen Kane is told in a series of interviews with associates of Kane, using flashbacks. This provides a more interesting method of telling the story compared to a linear narrative. 

Immersion is a key goal of contemporary film. Immersion is why you are sucked into the narrative or feel like you know the characters personally. Character depth is a key component of this. When a film has complex characters, it encourages empathy and strengthens the choices the characters make in the plot. Complex characters often face moral challenges, have agency in their environment in logical and emotional ways, have needs, change and develop, and overall are seen by the viewer as real human beings (Syd Field, 43; Oliver Kroener 51). There should be the feeling of a wealth of experiences underlying their decisions as a person.

There are also aspects of production that are centered around Immersion. The invisible style and continuity exist with the main goal of keeping immersion and avoiding awareness of the act of watching the film. A large goal of cinematography is to create a two-dimensional image that looks like it has real three-dimensional depth, and thus a more realistic environment. This is especially noticeable on sets that are made in perspective, like was commonly done in old silent films. this is a key reason for the existence of 3-point lighting: to show and accentuate depth and to create contrast. Additionally, these methods can add to the beauty of a film. 

Beauty

Beauty is a subjective term that has a lot more to do with experience than a simple science, so we are going to look at it in terms of visual style. The visual style is the look and feel of a film (cinepunked.com).  Maybe the film is dark and dramatic, or maybe it’s bright and optimistic. There are so many ways that filmmakers can style their films, and in the end, it just comes down to a feeling. A key way to tell the difference between a well-styled film and a poor one is motivation and cohesion. 

Motivation is the reason something is how it is in the film. Cohesion is how the parts make up the whole. A film’s look should be motivated and cohesive in the film. Why is the film dark? Maybe it’s a tragic story with devastating consequences, like The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008). Maybe the filmmaker wants to contrast a happy story with the weighty visuals. An example of the latter, where the story and visuals contrast is The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014). The bright, colorful visuals of the film come in stark contrast to the heavy story underlying them.

Effect

The effect is how the film changes the viewer over the course of the viewing and beyond. There are three layers of effect that we are going to discuss: emotional, mental, and societal. 

The emotional effects are the greatest priority for the filmmaker, as film is an art. Art is the methodical creation of emotion in the viewer. If a film’s primary goal is to make you feel something, and it fails at that, then the film as a whole has failed. 

The mental effects are how a film and its message sit with you over time. Does it change the way you look at the world? Does it make you reconsider yourself and your identity? Films that have a lasting personal effect will certainly stand out to you and affect your perception of the film itself.

Societal effects are effects on the culture of a people. It can be big or small. Maybe a film becomes an icon, with its sayings and catchphrases, like Die Hard’s “Yippee-ki-yay motherfucker,” (John McTeirnan, 1988) or cultural fads, like the Barbenheimer trend in 2023. It can sometimes be hard to pinpoint when it influences public opinion on an issue. An example would be Casablanca’s (Michael Curtiz, 1942) pro-war message, subtly influencing public opinion in favor of joining the Second World War.

Expectations

Expectations are how we hold the film in reference to our previous experiences with film. Whether or not you’ve noticed it, going into any film you have some level of expectations that you hope will be fulfilled from the film. Viewers want the film to be new and original and yet derivative and familiar.

Originality

If it is all about the experience, then why don’t you just watch the same films over and over? Why do spoilers matter? Because you can only watch a film the first time once. There is a certain excitement and otherness that comes from original ideas. It is interesting to us as curious creatures. When you watch films your mind is constantly trying to predict what will happen next, but when it is successful at that prediction it’s often disappointing. You want to make your predictions and you want your predictions to be wrong. You want to see things you’ve never seen before. Thus it is a high prase for a film to develop the medium. A good film should tell its story in new ways and inspire others to follow suit. If it can change how we look at film as a medium, then it is certainly a worthwhile experience.

Familiarity

The expectation of Familiarity applies both to the film itself and to the content of that film. Two core expectations that audiences have are genre and structure.

How do you choose what film you want to watch? How do you know if it’s something you’ll like or are in the mood for? It’s likely, whether consciously or unconsciously, that you’re looking at genre. To provide an example, let’s do a quick exercise:

What genre are you watching? A western. Genres provide us with narrative context for the story we are about to be told. According to Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film, “Genre films have been prevalent since the earliest days of cinema because, contrary to popular perceptions, most movie viewers value predictability over novelty” (Dave Monahan, 77). Viewers want to know what they are spending their money and time on before they watch.

Narrative structure is another thing you are likely aware of, even if you don’t notice it. Hollywood studios often reject scripts that do not follow a three-act structure, to the point where audiences have come to expect a three-act structure. The acts of the film are separated into exposition, conflict, and resolution. What separates one act from the next are plot points. Syd Field defines plot points as “any incident, episode or event that ‘hooks’ into the action and spins it around into another direction.” In film structure, there are two key plot points in the script. One at the end of Act One, or the key incident, when the action really starts, and one at the end of Act 2. Every good film follows this structure at some level. Films like Pulp Fiction (Quintin Tarantino, 1994) initially seem like an exception, considering the script has five nonlinear acts, but if you break it down in order, in the diegesis, it follows the structure like everything else with two plot points turning the story in a different direction, acting as hidden three act structure. (Syd Field, 142) If a film doesn’t do this, it just doesn’t feel like a traditional film and is somewhat disappointing as a result. 

Tying it together

Experience and expectations are not separate but rather together form our judgment of the film as a whole. Syd Field said “Good structure is like the relationship between an ice cube and water… When an ice cube melts into water how can you separate the molecules of ice from the molecules of water?” I believe the same thing applies here when critiquing film. All of the different elements influence each other and are interconnected in practice. If you mapped it out, drawing lines from one piece of criteria to the ones it is affected by and affects, the chart would look like a spider web. In the end, you don’t need justification for liking what you like. Film is about the experience, so if you like it, you like it, and if you don’t, you don’t. It doesn’t need to be any more complex than that.