Fourth Wall of Film: About

I teach English as a foreign language to adults, and use feature films with my students as a listening and ideas resource.

Why are you writing these film reviews?

I'm a film fan, and this blog is a personal journal of thoughts on films I've seen. It's the online version of a Bento database journal I've been keeping for a little while. The rating system is copied, with apologies, from the Spill Crew at Spill.com.

What are your policies?

As for rules of commenting, my policy is to write about my experience of the film as soon as possible after seeing it, maybe using Wikipedia for reference data. Only after finishing work on my commentary do I check the meta-scores on RottenTomatoes.com and IMDb.com and other meta-critics sites, and other people's reviews on RottenTomatoes.com. Of course, for recent films in particular, typically, I have read reviews of the films in The Guardian or The Independent, and heard reviews and discussions on the various film commentary podcasts to which I subscribe. So, along with recent releases, I am happy to watch somewhat older films, as I can often view these with a fresher, more independent eye.

What about PLOT SPOILERS?

I will strenuously try to avoid spoiling anyone's pleasure in watching a film by revealing key plot points.

Why the Fourth Wall of Film?

The Fourth Wall in a performance context, as I understand it, is when performers step outside the convention of the make-believe world they inhabit and directly interact with the audience, breaking through a theatrical space's "fourth wall" that stands metaphorically between the performers and the audience, forcing the audience to stop suspending their disbelief, if that makes any sense!
As for why I chose the term as the domain name for this film review blog, I really just liked the notion and the sound of it. You could say it makes a little sense if you imagine me in a film studio somewhere, looking into the camera lens, directly addressing the audience.