Reviews

Mark Jenkins of NPR reviewed the new film about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, which debuted this past weekend. Overall, the review is very effective. The review is of Goldilocks length – it’s just right. Jenkins also includes details from the movie to interest readers but does not give away too much from the film. He also uses well-known pop culture and film references to better explain the movie. His lede gets right to the his point, so a reader who had only a moment to glance at the review would get the jest of Jenkins’s point. The review also gives background about Assange and WikiLeaks and provides suggests some pre-movie education on the film topic. It would help readers if the author included a rating system, so readers could quickly decide whether or not to see the film. Jenkins could have also included links at the end of the review directing readers to informative news stories about Assange and WikiLeaks. From Jenkins’s review, I learned that when writing a review, one must walk a fine line between engaging descriptions and glossy fluff. One should also include additional resources, such as links to other articles, that could help readers better understand the film.

NPR Music’s Oliver Wang reviews the newly released album The Poets of Rhythm Anthology: 1992-2003 by The Poets of Rhythm, a young retro-soul group from Germany. For those like me who are uninformed of the retro-soul music movement, Wang gives a brief history of the genre and explains the prominence of the band in the movement. To give readers a better idea of the band’s music, Wang compares the Poets of Rhythm to other bands and muscians, who may be more well-known to readers. He also includes a sample of the band’s music, which gives readers the best representation of the band’s sound. The review does not include links to where one can buy the album, which would make it easier for readers. Nonetheless, aspiring reviewers should take note of the why the review is written. Like news articles, reviews should be written so that anyone–familiar with the band or not–can read and understand them.