HOW TO WRITE A BOOK, A MOVIE, OR A PLAY REVIEW

Teaching and learning how to write a book, a movie, or a play review is never easy. The following article will help you how to teach and how to learn writing a brief critique of a book, a movie, or a play, which will guide prospective readers, spectators, or theater goers.

A book, a movie, or a play review is a brief critique of a book, a movie, or a play. It is written to guide prospective readers, spectators, or theater goers.

In writing a book, a movie, or a play review, indicate the subject-the title, the author, and the publisher of the book; the title, the playwright, the director, and the producer of the movie; and the title, the playwright, the director, and the producer of the play. Include earlier works of the author and the publisher of the book; the playwright, the director, and the producer of the movie, or the playwright, the director, and the producer play.

State when and where the book was published, when and where the movie was produced, or when and where the play was performed. Include historical background to enable prospective readers, spectators, or theater goers to place the book, the movie, or the play into a specific context.

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PRADA, VERSACE, ARMANI, AND ALL: A BOOK REVIEW OF LAUREN WEISBERGER'S THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

A SAMPLE REVIEW
BY CHRISTINE JOY DE SOTTO CASTOR


WHAT WILL YOU do if your heaven-sent job turns out to be a living hell?

Picture yourself in a pair of Prada suede pants driving a Porsche roadster around Manhattan traffic with your boss barking orders over the phone. Never mind not really knowing how to drive a stick-shift car. Never mind not having a good sleep at all and not having a hearty meal since yesterday. What matters is you reach your employer’s apartment with the car together in one piece. Just step on the gas and have your car to a quinta or you will be eaten alive.

Now, breathe. It was merely a delusional nightmare. Thank goodness! Unfortunately, for Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, this is one of the daily antics in Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada, an amusing novel about the most impossible boss in the history of impossible bosses.

Narrated in Andrea’s smart and charming voice, the novel traces a deep, dark, and devilish view of social life only hinted at gossip columns and over traditional cocktail parties. It revolves around Andrea who just arrived from India and who is recovering from amoebic dysentery in Avon, Connecticut. She then decides to move to New York after landing a good job in Runway, a popular fashion magazine where Prada, Versace, Armani, and all shout at every turn, where thin and stylish men and women clad in tight leather pants and fine-ribbed turtlenecks thrive.

Besides trying to blend herself in the fashionista crowd, Andrea struggles to remain sane from her devious boss, Miranda Priestly, the high profile and fabulously successful Runway editor. She does her very best to stay enthusiastic despite the impossible demands of "her majesty," ensuring that she serves Starbuck’s Café Latte to Miranda at the piping hot temperature that she prefers, sends the latest not-yet-in-stores Harry Potter to Miranda’s children in Paris by a private jet, and locates an unnamed antique store where Miranda had at some point admired a vintage dresser.

Soon, Andrea learns that to get to the top and to stay there, she must sacrifice a lot. Afraid that her poor work performance would get her fired, Andrea allows her choker job to occupy her wholly and starts to neglect her personal life. Her relationship with her boyfriend, Alex, soon fails to go through. She loses her personal identity and chooses her work over her responsibilities as a sister, daughter, best friend, and girlfriend.

In the novel, Andrea is well reminded that she landed the job that "a million girls would die for." As her tasks escalate from merely unaccepted to downright outrageous, she begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for will eventually kill her in the end. And even if she survives, she has to decide if her job is worth the price of her soul.

Despite the roller-coaster events that the novel imposes to its readers, it remains to be satirical yet honest and entertaining. It revolves around the awful reality that fresh graduates encounter on their first job, their first glance on the world of work, firmly discussing the perks and drawbacks of working through the eyes of a simple dreamer.

Weisberger chose a perfect location that blends career and fashion together—New York City—where women in baro’t saya are as abstract as life on Venus. With its skyscrapers and never-ending hustle and bustle, one just cannot imagine women in abaniko escorted by men in tungkod at salakot hurrying in its subways. Of course, women clad in a mini skirt by Gianni Versace and biker-chick black boots by Georgio Armani are not always any better with women in Maria Clara or Balintawak complete with fine manners.

The novel chronicles a sense of "girl power," and Andrea’s tough job simply screams what girls want to prove: "I can do this and I can still look great at the same time."

FAUX MADNESS AND THE COMPLEX WORLD OF HAMLET: A PLAY REVIEW OF DULAANG UNIBERSIDAD NG PILIPINAS'S HAMLET REDUX

A SAMPLE REVIEW
BY CHRISTINE JOY DE SOTTO CASTOR


UP DILIMAN—Hamlet, a work of art and passion as famous as its writer, Master William Shakespeare, the Bard of Stratford-Upon-Avon and the Flower of the English Renaissance, has found a temporary sanctuary at the Wilfrido Ma Guerrero Theater in the University of the Philippines-Diliman. It is a tragedy transformed into a very imaginable form throughout centuries. In text or in theater, it is admired and preferred at the same time. Shakespeare’s longest work was yet again reconstructed into another interesting silhouette presented and performed by the Dulaang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas for its 31st Theater Season dubbed as Hamlet: Redux in English and in Filipino.

Hamlet is a very unexplainable character. He believes in supernatural intervention. One moment he is in grief, the next moment he is in torment, and sometimes he is suicidal. He represents the vast range of human drama and emotions with faux madness to avenge for his father’s death: “Hindi ako baliw kundi nagbabaliwbaliwang sadya” (That I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft). Hamlet, accompanied by several vague characters, coats the play in layers of mystery that make it more alluring.

Pagkahaba-haba Man ng Prusisyon sa Simbahan din ang Tuloy, a very feminist play, opened the Dulaang UP’s First Season in 1976. It was Lilia Antonio’s translation of Much Ado About Nothing. After that, the Dulaang UP has been performing Shakespeare’s plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1983, Romeo and Juliet, 1987; Macbeth, 1995; Richard III, 2000; Othello, 2000; and A Winter’s Tale, 2001.

About 30 years ago, National Artist Rolando Tinio translated Shakespeare’s illustrious play into fine lyrical verses in the Filipino Language. This year, Professor Emeritus Antonio Mabesa, Dulaang UP’s founding artistic director, used Tinio’s translation to create the complex world of Hamlet in Hamlet: Redux.

Nobles don trench coats and business suits. Ophelia answers her cell phone. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz steal the spotlight in their iPods, spike hair, and crazy antics. Horatio captures Claudius’s guilt-driven face in handy cam. Hamlet and Laertes duel in matrix-style kung fu moves. Despite these pleasant twists and post modern treatment, the two-hour play admirably presented the eccentricity of Hamlet as a character.

Hamlet: Redux is simply Hamlet warped into a fresh fusion suited of the Twenty-first Century influences. Hamlet: Redux in Filipino cast of characters included Arnold Reyes as Hamlet; Dante Balboa, Claudio; Angeli Bayani, Gertudes; Allan Palileo, Polonio; Michael Ian Lomongo, Horatio; Boojie Santiago, Laertes; Cherry Mae Canton, Ofelia; Faust Peneyra, Rosencrantz; Arkel Mendoza, Guildenstern; JM De Guzman, Basalyo; and Niño Mendoza, Bernardo.

The play was dubbed Hamlet: Redux because, as Professor Mabesa explains, “An unedited Hamlet runs for four hours on stage as I have experienced years ago in Cleveland, Ohio. In this current production, we have judiciously edited the play to run for two hours, more or less, without prejudice to the basic plot, poetry, images, characters, soliloquies, and the famous lines in the play. To make the production as accessible to our young audience, the play is set in a timeless frame: settings, costumes, properties are contemporary and not localized, the sound design, eclectic; video projections, choreography, and movement, familiar to present day audiences.”

Since the play that I watched was in Filipino, one might think that it is easier than speaking in an English accent in iambic pentameter. Actually, Tinio’s formal language is about the same when speaking Shakespeare’s immortal verses. Professor Mabesa admits that Tinio’s intricate lines are actually hard to memorize but once they are in one’s mind, it flows beautifully.

Hamlet: Redux temporarily resided in the Wilfrido Ma Guerrero Theater, but I think the epitome it left on my mind will stay much longer.