Whether you are a lifelong cinephile or just beginning your journey into film appreciation, this course will deepen your viewing experiences and transform the way you engage with cinema forever.

Film scholar, podcaster, and critic Jack Hanley returns for a new installment of his popular course exploring the art, language, and meaning of film. A direct extension of HOW TO WATCH A MOVIE, this course elevates away from the process of filmmaking and toward the theory, deconstruction, and interpretation of the form. Combining lecture, film clips, interactive discussions, and the live deconstruction of films and iconic cinematic moments, participants will build upon the foundations established in the original course while exploring more advanced approaches to cinematic analysis.

Together, we will examine how films communicate meaning through direction, cinematography, editing, performance, theory, and ideology. Moving beyond the mechanics of filmmaking, this course explores how cinema reflects history, expresses cultural values, reveals political assumptions, and articulates a filmmaker’s unique vision of the world. Participants will leave with a richer understanding of how films function not only as entertainment, but as art, historical documents, and cultural texts.

At the conclusion of the course, we will watch, deconstruct, and discuss Ryan Coogler’s groundbreaking contemporary masterpiece SINNERS together as a class, employing the analytical tools and critical frameworks developed throughout the course.