How to Watch a Movie Like a Critic

At the Brooklyn Book Fair, a panel of critics advised the audience with their best advice for getting the most from movies and books. From NY Times critic A.O. Scott:

Whatever you’re consuming—even a movie that seems to require no thought—pay attention, and take notes. For Scott, there’s no real difference between reading or watching for work and for pleasure.
“I can’t read without a pencil or pen in hand, whatever I’m reading,” he says. “I have to have something to make notes in the margin or underline or scribble with. … I can’t just like what I like, or not like what I don’t like, without thinking, ‘Why?’ —Which is kind of where criticism starts.”