This writing-intensive course examines the practice of film criticism in the age of Twitter, Letterboxd, and prodigious streaming options. With widely proliferating outlets for distribution and public discourse, what role does the critic play today, as expert, intellectual, influencer, or naysayer? Tracing historical trends from cinema’s origins to the present (auteurism, feminism, apparatus theory, cultural studies, the “oppositional gaze”), along with parallel perspectives from art, music, and literary criticism, the course situates the critic within and against the culture industry, between academia, journalism, marketing, and popular discourse. Students will practice different approaches through written, videographic, digital, and other critical techniques, and discuss the field with professional practitioners. [Tracks C, M, S]