Try these tips:
While the terms "review" and "criticism" are often used interchangeably, there are differences between them. Note how books are often referred to by their genre when discussing criticism--novel, short story, poetry, etc.--and simply "books" when discussing reviews.
Literary criticism is the study, interpretation, and evaluation of a piece of literature and its place in literary history. Literary criticism usually offers interpretation of things like meaning, analysis of structure and style, judgement of its worth by comparison with other works, and an estimation of its likely effect on readers. Literary theory (e.g., feminist, postmodernist, etc.) often informs the critical analysis of a work.
Literary criticism differs from book reviews in several ways: it entails both analysis and judgement; it may be published many years after a work is released; it is usually longer and more complex than a book review. A book review is more "consumer-oriented," placing more emphasis on recommendation than analysis.Book reviews are usually written around the time of the work's publication, and then perhaps again when a reprint or new edition is released.
Reviews of books may be found in online databases that index newspapers and general interest magazines (e.g., New York Times Book Review, New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New Republic, etc.).
In-depth criticism and analyses of literary works may be found in more scholarly or academic publications (e.g., PMLA, New Literary History, American Literature, etc.) indexed in LibSearch and in scholarly journal collections such as Academic Search Premier, JSTOR or Project Muse.
(The above adapted from something written by Patricia Mardeusz, Librarian at the Bailey/Howe Library of the U of Vermont, and used with permission.)
It's easy these days to find book reviews. What's not always easy is finding a particular review, rather than just any, or else reviews outside of the "usual suspects" from something like Amazon or some reading-enthusiast's blog.
To find a greater variety of reviews by professional writers, you'll need a subscription to get to the full text, which you have via Bethel. Use the library's website to find them via LibSearch or use one of the Research Databases listed in the English Language & Literature subject drop-down.
For contemporary reviews of books written before the mid-80s: Electronic indexes often only go back to about the 1980s. For reviews of books written before then, you'll need that old technology--the book. Look for the Book Review Index upstairs in our index collection. Once you get your citations from there, use the Journal Title search on our page to find our access to the journals, magazines or newspapers.
Most database interfaces offer an Advanced Search option that includes various ways to limit your results. One of the common limits is something like Document Type. If you don't see that kind of option, you can always use the word "review" as one of your search terms. While this isn't fool-proof, it does a pretty good job of getting you reviews rather than other types of things about your movie.
Any of the databases listed in the box above will contain reviews as well as analysis. In addition to these, try the resources below:
