Book, Film, Music & Theatre Reviews

To access the following article databases, go to the "Find Article Databases" link from the Library Homepage and type in the name of the database (i.e., Ebsco) in the search field box.

EBSCOhost (Academic search elite/MasterFILE premier)

• EBSCO is a collection of databases and indexes to help you find materials published in periodicals (magazines, journals, and newspapers).  On the database selection screen, select the first two databases, Academic Search and Masterfile.  On the search screen, enter the title of the work as a phrase (with quotation marks) or relevant keywords (like unique words in the title or the author’s name) and add the word “review” (without quotation marks).  Some results will be full text (the entire review can be viewed online) and some results will require finding the periodical in print.

Sample search: “Gangs of New York” and review (finds reviews of the film)

         Sample search: “Small Wonder” and Kingsolver and review (finds reviews of the book by Kingsolver) 

         Sample search:  Rising and Springsteen and review (finds reviews of the music by Bruce Springsteen.

Proquest Newspapers

• Proquest Newspapers is a collection of national newspapers, with most articles available in full text.  The newspapers include reviews of books, films and music CDs.  Searching Proquest is similar to searching Ebsco. 

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe

• This service provides access to the full text contents of major newspaper, magazines and journals (among many other things).  It includes reviews of books, films, and music CDs. Before you search, you must specify a Search Form.  On the left side of the screen select “News”, then under News Category select “Arts and Sports News”.  For your News Source, select “Book, movie, music and play reviews”.  You will probably also need to expand the date range beyond the last six months.

Web Resources

Be selective and critical! 

• Metacritic.com  http://www.metacritic.com – film and music reviews
• Internet Movie Database  http://www.imdb.com – search for the film, then use the external reviews pick on the left hand column
• Amazon http://www.amazon.com – includes editorial book reviews
• Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com – use “from the critics” section for book review sources
• Theatre Reviews Limited http://www.theatrereviews.com/ - includes review of theatre productions in the U.S.