What Are The Style Conventions for Little White Lies?

The Little White Lies language content offers its audience a witty, sharp and intuitive observation of said film. From analysing a series of dated and contemporary articles it appears there is a consistency and method to how each writer sets out to compose their article. Similar to an aesthetic template, the company have also designed a language template. Here is what we found:

The first example was Kathryn Bigelow's adaptation of the international hunt for Osama Bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty (2012):

1. Historical and political contexts.
2. Historical and political contexts and link with protagonist in this case Jessica Chastain.
3. Introducing the protagonist, references to the director's style and genre conventions.
4. Genre- repetition and variation from standard conventions, with references to similar films.
5. The directors intentions, themes and aspects of style 
6. Repetition and variation of genre conventions; key scenes and unique elements.
7. Summary of end scene's importance; distinctive genre features compared to Hollywood Styles. Positive last sentence- a positive last sentence is not always applicable to every article as some critics take a different perspective on the film they are reviewing.

Another dated example is Christopher Mcquairre's Jack Reacher (2012):

1. Literary contexts; casting of protagonist 
2. Intro to protagonist traits, linked to persona of star, Tom Cruise genre departures (repetition and variation)
3. Description of plot opening and link to title 
4. description of plot developments and references to actors.
5. evaluation of protagonist as a character (Reacher) and star performance (Tom Cruise) compared to standard genre films of this type. Negative closing sentence.

There are some key contrasting differences between the two examples above. One is the actual length of the article, Zero Dark Thirty contains 7 paragraphs whereas Jack Reacher contains only 5, one possible explanation for this is that Zero Dark Thirty has appropriate references to historical and political episodes as its based on true events. Jack Reacher is a fictional narrative and therefore has no historical or political background. Another difference between the two is the format, The Jack Reacher article looks more at the character and the actor Tom Cruise i.e performance, whereas Zero Dark Thirty evaluates predominately the narrative itself and how the director has decided to construct her adaptation for the hunt of Osama Bin Laden.

A more recent article is Scott Coopers Black Mass (2015) 

From analysing the format in this particular article it is evident that it holds a different structure to the films listed above:

1. Historical references to the non-fictional figure Whitey Bulger and a short map of his criminal career. 
2. Plot references accompanied by negative feedback from the critic
3. Plot analysis with further negativity 
4. Plot analysis with reference to character (star performance) again with further negativity 
5. plot analysis, why the adaptation is historically obscure i.e. faults with historical dates and key affairs of Whitey Bulger's life story.
6. Further plot analysis with negative closing sentence.

One fairly noticeable difference is the choice of centring the article around the narrative and plot its self. There is only one paragraph that excludes plot analysis. One possible explanation for this is the quality of the film and the directors ability to retell actual events, therefore making it an inaccurate depiction and unsuccessful reenactment of the infamous Whitey Bulger. 

From gathering information from all three sources we have constructed a generic template applicable for our film article:

1. Contexts- Literary, directors previous films, historical or cultural events
2. Summary information about protagonist/s and key players (traits; issues of representation where appropriate; key aspects and evaluation of performances)
3. Key Themes, issues and plot (what it's about without spoilers)
4. Narrative devices (+ evaluation of these)
5. Use and adaptation of genre conventions (+ evaluation of these)
6. Critic's experience of the film
7. Summary sentence evaluating the whole film