Rhetorical Analysis

The published movie review under analysis gives a short synapse and review of the

movie The House Bunny with a concentrated focus on the main character and what she brings

to the movie. The authors purpose in this review is to give readers a brief idea of whether they

would be interested in seeing the film or not. It is his/her job to weed out the important elements,

both good and bad, and share with the audience so that they may make educated decisions of

their own. The reviewer must state things in a general sense such as if the acting was good or if

the storyline itself seems clich. The author of this particular movie review seems to focus

primarily on the main character, Anna Faris, and how she specifically performed in this break-

out film. The main audience for this review is obviously movie goers in the age range that the

movie is appropriate for. Since it is a PG-13 movie, the audience is most likely between the ages

of 13 and 50. Other secondary audiences may include fans of Anna Faris herself and people who

contributed in some way to the production of the movie to see some of the feedback. The

audience and readers of a movie review expect a few specific things within this genre.

Obviously, readers expect to see basic facts about the film such as producers, directors, actors,

and movie genre. This particular review has a large list at the bottom of all the contributing

parties. They also expect a useful critique without giving away unexpected spoilers. One way to

do this is have a separate section where it actually says summary or synapsis so readers

know where the spoilers are. The critique must be useful but broad so that nothing notable is

given away from it. Most people do not want the entire movies storyline ruined before they even

decide if they would like to see it. Audiences expect something fairly short in length when it

comes to movie reviews. Most people are not willing to read pages and pages of a review

because they could just watch the movie in the amount of time that would take to read. This
movie review was published in Sight & Sound Magazine and is written by Vadim Rizov. The

publishing format was in a magazine so it most likely was in article form and had a photo of the

movie to go along with it. Using visual design elements such as a photo of the movie cover help

readers to visualize and know more about what the author is talking about. The format on the

database has no visual design elements and is just blocks of text that dont really add anything or

reflect the conventions of most movie reviews in this day in age. Overall, this review did its job

and followed most of this genres conventions, giving the audience what they would expect from

a movie review. The author could have focused less on the main actress and more on the movie

as a whole in my opinion but readers can still make an educated decision from the information

provided in the review.

 Citation

Rizov, V. (2008). The House Bunny. Sight &Sound, 18(11), 61.