Everything You Need to Become A Film Buff

Growing up I always liked movies. I fondly remember staying up all night at a friend’s birthday party to watch the entire extended edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, rewatching Dumb & Dumber ad nauseum, and to this day I think I remember every line from A Princess Bride. Like I said, I’ve always really liked movies but I didn’t start to appreciate them until I was in High School. During my freshman year, I took a class taught by one of the English Teachers who would walk us through classic movies. It opened my eyes to the intricacies of filmmaking, it showed me the importance of details, and how cinema can be art instead of simple entertainment. Since then, I have been watching as many movies as I can get my hands on, reading, learning about, and listening to experts talk about them. I also write about movies and consider myself to be a tried and true film. Today, I want to walk you through some of the most important aspects to becoming a film buff, and resources you can use to become one.

Resources For Becoming A Film-Buff

Growing up I always liked movies. I fondly remember staying up all night at a friend’s birthday party to watch the entire extended edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, rewatching Dumb & Dumber ad nauseum, and to this day I think I remember every line from A Princess Bride. Like I said-I’ve always really liked movies-but I didn’t start to appreciate them until I was in High School. During my freshman year, I took a class taught by one of the English Teachers who would walk us through classic movies. It opened my eyes to the intricacies of filmmaking, it showed me the importance of details, and how cinema can be art instead of simple entertainment. Since then, I have been watching as many movies as I can get my hands on, reading, and learning about, and listening to experts talk about movies. I also write about movies, and consider myself to be a tried and true film-and today, I want to walk you through some of the most important aspects to becoming a film buff.

Finding What To Watch

The first step to becoming a cinephile is to watch movies, and the first step to watching movies is picking what to watch. When you’re first thrust into the world of cinema, it can seem endless. There are hundreds of movies released every month from countries all over the world, add to that, the 120+ years that film has been around, and it can be a bit overwhelming. So here are my recommendations for great places to find the best movies to watch. After laying the groundwork and becoming familiar with the basics of film, you’ll start to gravitate towards eras, directors, actors, and styles that you like.

  • IMDb Top Rated Movies

    You don’t need to tell me that this isn’t a perfect list. It’s biased towards recent movies, and its demographics are skewed towards 15-30 year old males. With that in mind, it’s a pretty good introduction to film. There is a good distribution of films from the 1920’s until today, a good mix of arthouse and blockbusters, and films from around the world. It’s a good list to work through to get a good variety of films.

  • Roger Ebert's Great Movies List

    From 1967 to 2013 Roger Ebert was the head critic for the Chicago Sun Times. In those 46 years, he saw A LOT of movies. Some good, and a lot of bad. He sorted through everything mediocre and created his list of thousands of great movies. I often times find myself perusing these pages looking for a new great movie to watch!

  • The Criterion Collection

    The Criterion Collection is one of my favorite movie related companies. They find and restore classic movies, add hours of bonus footage, and distribute them. Just about all of their movies are important in shaping cinema, and anytime I see that offset “C” in the top left corner of a movie poster, I know it is going to be something great.

  • Thomas Pollock's Movie Marathons

    This is a great resource for some in depth discussions of a particular era of film. If you find that you are a big fan of the silent era or that you like 1970’s cinema, be sure to explore some of these “Marathons” created by Thomas Pollock. He often times includes a top 10 (or top 50) favorite films from each era, and always has great insight to add to the conversation.

  • 100 Movies Everyone Should Watch

    This is a list of 100 movies that I feel like everyone should watch. It’s not a perfect list, but does a good job of going through decade by decade and pointing out some great movies. In addition, the comment section is FULL of recommendations of important and noteworthy films.

Where to Watch

Now that you know what you’re going to watch, the trouble is finding the right place to watch it. I’m someone who stands firmly against online piracy, so here are some pretty cheap, and perfectly legal ways to watch some great movies.

  • Netflix

    I think most people have Netflix, and it is a cinephile’s best friend. They may not have exactly what you are looking for, but they’re going to have something worth watching. They keep it fresh, always adding new movies, and also have new releases within a few months of availability on DVD/Blu Ray. They are also pushing to create a great library of exclusive titles, over the next few years they will be releasing work done by Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, and a ton of other great filmmakers.

  • Your Local Library

    Your local library should have THOUSANDS of great movies to watch for free! Most have hundreds of titles from The Criterion Collection, classics from every era of cinema, and movies from around the world. Your local library is THE BEST PLACE to find exactly what you are looking for. So head downtown, and start exploring.

  • Crackle

    Crackle is a free service that streams HD content. They are owned by Sony and release a few great movies for free. Most aren’t that great, but there are always a few movies worth watching!

  • YouTube

    YouTube is great to find classic movies that are now in the public domain. After a few decades, copyright law expires, and movies are free to watch. YouTube is full of classic movies to watch legally and for free.

Learning About Movies

You’ve now seen a lot of great movies, next comes learning about them. Real film studies courses are expensive, and a big time commitment, so what are the best ways to create a self-taught film education?

  • Every Frame a Painting

    Every Frame A Painting is the channel that popularized the format. Unfortunately, he is currently doing work elsewhere, but there is a great back catalog of videos to look through.

  • Lessons from the Screenplay

    Lessons From The Screenplay is a great look into the building blocks of story, character, and dialogue. Very high-quality content is produced regularly.

  • Jack's Movie Reviews

    Jack’s Movie Reviews is a channel that I run that looks at a different movie every week. Topics change from week to week, but the ultimate goal of my channel is to break down “what makes a great movie great?”

  • Film Radar

    Film Radar makes some of the best and most polished video essays about film. He has covered topics ranging from characters, sound design, and philosophy.

  • Philosophical Films

    Philosophical Films is a great website to learn about some of the deeper meanings found within different movies. They have covered around 75 movies and all of their discussions are worth a read!

  • The Criterion Collection

    The aforementioned Criterion Collection has released a ton of essays on their different films. There is a lot of information available from some of the best film scholars out there.

My 10 Favorite Movies

Now that you have become a certified film buff-I have a challenge for you. Listed below are my 10 favorite movies of all time and a question that I believe defines that movie. While you watch the movies, think about that question, and then try to come up with a different question for each movie. I've also included a few links to my own discussions of these movies for an even more in depth look!

About The Author

In 2014 I started writing movie reviews of some of my favorite movies. At that time I started exploring some of the "essential films" and those reviews acted as a great companion piece to my discovery of what would become some of my favorite movies. Eventually, I moved over to YouTube where I tried to see as many movies in theaters as possible. The trouble with this is that a lot of new movies coming out aren't that great, and let's be honest, who has time for bad movies? So instead I started to focus on older movies, and what makes them so great.

  • My YouTube Page

    Where you can find all of my film (and television) analysis.

  • My Twitter

    The latest Tweets from Jack's Movie Reviews (@JackMoviereview). Exploring what makes different movies so great. New video every week!

  • Bublup

    I made this roll using a new app called Bublup. If you like the way it looks and want to make one too, click here to check it out!