Reddit reviews Film Theory and Criticism

This one is an excellent anthology:

http://www.amazon.com/Film-Theory-Criticism-Leo-Braudy/dp/0195365623/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427745065&sr=8-1&keywords=film+theory

These are some of my favorites:

André Bazin, What is Cinema?

Andrej Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time

Gilberto Perez, The Material Ghost

Gilles Deleuze, The Movement Image & The Time Image (sophisticated, but very insightful)

I'm not totally sure what you mean by "fluency in reading deeper into game," but my standard advice for becoming proficient in analysis is to not limit yourself to reading about games. To be truly good at it, you need a broader base; you should become fluent in film and literature and their analysis as well. Obviously this also requires experiencing a decent selection of the important games, films, and writings, as well.

Some other reddit discussions that might be helpful in this regard (I replied to all of them with links and ideas):

• Are there any resources with which to learn how to review games as properly as possible?
  
• What are the essential readings in the games-as-art debate? - Note that the top-rated comment here is a quote from the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, underscoring my suggestion to go broader than games. Also, the entirety of the preface from which that quote is taken is essential reading.
  
• Essential Games - What games should be required playing for studying the medium? What's the 'game canon'?
  
  Generally useful game websites:
  
  
• Critical Distance - A great aggregator of game writing. Lot's of essential reading here.
  
• Raph Koster's Website
  
• /r/ludology and /r/truegaming
  
• Gameology
  
• Critical Missive
  
• Brainy Gamer
  
• Ben Medler - Tread Digital
  
• Popular Culture Gaming
  
• FILMCRITHULK - Mostly film, but also TV and games. The film stuff is essential reading, too, though. This article is particularly relevant to games-as-art.
  
• Click Nothing - See also the article on here in which the term 'ludonarrative dissonance' was coined. This is a concept you should know.
  
• J Burger Analysis
  
• The Game Critique
  
• Gamasutra
  
• Vintage Game Club
  
• The Slowdown
  
• Medium Difficulty
  
  For becoming literate in film, you can find out what some of the more important ones are at They Shoot Pictures. I won't add a list of film writings and websites because there are just too many. It might be worth picking up an intro to film studies text book like Film Art: An Introduction and a compilation of critical film writing like Film Theory and Criticism. If you want more detailed suggestions on readings in film, let me know; I'm a huge film nerd. Similarly, picking up a book on analyzing literature might be helpful, too.
  
  Another trick to finding out what you should be reading for any area like this, whether it be game design or film studies, is to search for syllabi for university courses on the subject. Typically, such documents have lists of suggested reading. Of course, if you're a student still, you might even be able to take such a course.
  
  Finally, in a bit of shameless self promotion, I sometimes write about games here, but I'm far from a pro.
  
  Hope this helps a bit!

I second Every Frame a Painting as a great channel for film theory/criticism. That guy is doing really top notch work.

I'm also a fan of the channel Filmmaker IQ. They do some great videos covering the theory and history of various technical developments in filmmaking (sound, editing, aspect ratios, digital video). The videos tend to dig into the hard science/math behind these things more than other straight history lessons would, so some people find them a little dry, but I appreciated it.

For books, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's Film Art: An Introduction is a pretty standard introductory text book on film theory. Sadly, like most textbooks, it is very expensive.

However, David Bordwell also runs a great website where he blogs frequently about contemporary and classic cinema. This is 100% free, and his essays are always worth reading.

If you want to dive deeper into the academic side of things, the book Film Theory and Criticism is a great curated (and often updated) collection of film essays running from the earliest days of silent film, up through the mid-2000s.

Here's a few books that I found very helpful in my film education:
[Film Theory and Criticism] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195365623/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_mmt-tb0ZCNAH3) - fairly self-explanatory in terms of what it is. A great collection of academic film criticism and film theory writings.

Film Theory - An Introduction - a great book that looks at some of the most widely regarded writings on film theory and breaks them down into more easy to understand explanations (film theorists often like to demonstrate the size of their vocabulary a bit too much, to the point where it can be distracting to some). Best consumed alongside the writings and theories being referenced, many of which can be found in the first book I linked.

Both of the above are going to be the most useful to you if you can try and read them shortly before or after (or both) viewing some or all of the films they're discussing.

Also, start taking some film history classes, or read a few books. Just like art-critics you have to have a sense of perspective and knowledge of the history, mechanics and genres.

I would reccommend you to check out some of the stuff David Bordwell wrote. http://www.davidbordwell.net/

This book is what got me started with it all http://www.davidbordwell.net/filmart/index.php Its VERY comprehensive, it treats basically any aspect of the production process of a film. But not critique perse, its still quite good to at-least know what details go into making a film, lighting and camera angles etc.


Still, what would be MUCH MORE relevant for you would be this book, Film Theory & Crticism by Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen.

There are some articles in here that with just a single read of about ten pages can totally change your perspective on films, it will make you recognize styles influence and originality/quality. It will totally teach you alot of the basics of film criticism, im sure it will help alot! Especially David Bordwells article "The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice." rocked my world. I would def buy that if you're serious about knowing how to critique films.

I'll link you to that exact article in a different book here, be sure to summarize so you'll remember it! Here it is

Other than that, alot of the film critics are totally un-schooled loud mouthed sensational and overly opinionated writers that just got lucky by being hired for some form of media publishing.

Just going by what Hyperforce posted will get you there if you've got the passion.