Critics & Reviewers30 skills

Film Critics skills for AI agents

30 practitioner-grade film critics skills, each a focused Markdown document your agent loads into context on demand. Search them from Claude Desktop, Cursor or any MCP client, or pull one with the CLI.

$ npx skilldb search "film critics"

All 30 skills

Critic Style Amy Nicholson
Write in the voice of Amy Nicholson — the LA Times critic, podcaster, and genre film champion known for her contrarian streak, deep-dive research, enthusiastic expertise, and willingness to champion overlooked and undervalued films. Host of podcasts including "Unspooled" and "The Canon," with an infectious love of cinema history and a knack for making audiences reconsider films they thought they knew. Trigger keywords: film criticism, genre film, horror, action, contrarian, deep dive, film history, podcast, LA Times, film canon, underrated films.
141 lines
Critic Style Andre Bazin
Write in the voice of André Bazin — the founding father of Cahiers du Cinéma and champion of cinematic realism. Ontological approach to cinema, deep focus and long-take advocacy, influenced the French New Wave. Trigger keywords: Bazin, Cahiers, realism, long take, deep focus, ontology, neorealism, French New Wave, film theory.
99 lines
Critic Style Andrew Sarris
Write in the voice of Andrew Sarris — the Village Voice critic who brought auteur theory to America and systematically ranked directors in "The American Cinema." Taxonomic, scholarly, director-centric criticism. Trigger keywords: Sarris, auteur theory, Village Voice, American Cinema, Pantheon, directors, auteurism, film canon.
98 lines
Critic Style Anthony Lane
Write in the voice of Anthony Lane — The New Yorker's witty, literary, digressive film critic known for British humor, elegant prose, and acerbic one-liners. A prose stylist first and a film critic second. Trigger keywords: Anthony Lane, New Yorker, British wit, literary criticism, elegant prose, acerbic, digressive, erudite humor.
95 lines
Critic Style Ao Scott
Write in the voice of A.O. Scott — the New York Times film critic who bridges intellectual rigor and accessibility, author of "Better Living Through Criticism." Cultural contextualizer, thoughtful essayist, defender of criticism as a vital practice. Trigger keywords: A.O. Scott, New York Times, Better Living Through Criticism, NYT, intellectual, cultural context, accessible criticism.
85 lines
Critic Style Bilge Ebiri
Write in the voice of Bilge Ebiri — Vulture and New York Magazine film critic known for cinephile depth, genre appreciation, warm humanistic perspective, and eclectic taste spanning art-house and mainstream. Trigger keywords: Ebiri, Vulture, New York Magazine, cinephile, genre, humanistic, eclectic, warm criticism.
84 lines
Critic Style Dana Stevens
Write in the voice of Dana Stevens — Slate's film critic known for conversational wit, feminist perspective, cultural context, and accessible intellectual criticism. Also a podcaster and cultural essayist. Trigger keywords: Dana Stevens, Slate, conversational, witty, feminist, cultural context, accessible, podcast.
86 lines
Critic Style David Ehrlich
Write in the voice of David Ehrlich — IndieWire's senior film critic known for passionate art cinema advocacy, viral year-end video countdowns, personal/emotional criticism, and a belief that movies should change your life. Trigger keywords: Ehrlich, IndieWire, video countdown, art cinema, emotional, passionate, best of year, personal criticism.
87 lines
Critic Style David Thomson
Write in the voice of David Thomson — author of "A Biographical Dictionary of Film," the cinephile's bible. Encyclopedic, personal, idiosyncratic taste, intimate conversational tone about cinema's greatest figures. Trigger keywords: Thomson, Biographical Dictionary, film encyclopedia, cinephile, personal, idiosyncratic, conversational, canon.
72 lines
Critic Style Francois Truffaut
Write in the voice of Francois Truffaut — the Cahiers du Cinema critic who became a French New Wave filmmaker. "A Certain Tendency of French Cinema," auteur theory champion, passionate cinephile voice. Trigger keywords: Truffaut, Cahiers du Cinema, French New Wave, auteur, 400 Blows, cinephile, certain tendency, critic-filmmaker.
76 lines
Critic Style Gene Siskel
Write in the voice of Gene Siskel — the cerebral, competitive Chicago Tribune film critic and co-host of Siskel & Ebert. Known for the "lunch test" and sharp disagreements with Ebert, intellectual rigor with populist instinct. Trigger keywords: Siskel, Chicago Tribune, thumbs, Siskel and Ebert, lunch test, balcony, At the Movies.
94 lines
Critic Style James Agee
Write in the voice of James Agee — the poet-critic who brought literary genius to film criticism at The Nation and Time. Also a novelist and screenwriter (The African Queen, Night of the Hunter). Lyrical prose, moral seriousness, deep compassion. Trigger keywords: Agee, The Nation, poet critic, literary criticism, African Queen, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, lyrical.
96 lines
Critic Style Jonathan Rosenbaum
Write in the voice of Jonathan Rosenbaum — the radical, contrarian Chicago Reader critic and champion of world and experimental cinema. Anti-mainstream, politically charged, confrontational, encyclopedic knowledge of global film. Trigger keywords: Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader, contrarian, world cinema, experimental, anti-mainstream, radical, global cinema.
86 lines
Critic Style Justin Chang
Write in the voice of Justin Chang — the LA Times film critic known for elegant formalism, multicultural perspective, precise language, and thoughtful measured analysis. Trigger keywords: Chang, LA Times, formalist, multicultural, precise, elegant, Asian American cinema, measured.
86 lines
Critic Style K Austin Collins
Write in the voice of K. Austin Collins — the young, vital film critic for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone who represents a new generation of criticism. Known for lyrical prose, cultural contextualization, identity-aware analysis, and a voice that seamlessly blends personal reflection, political consciousness, and deep cinephilia. Trigger keywords: film criticism, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, contemporary cinema, cultural criticism, identity, representation, lyrical prose, new generation, film review.
139 lines
Critic Style Laura Mulvey
Write in the voice of Laura Mulvey — the feminist film theorist who coined "the male gaze" in "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Psychoanalytic film theory, foundational feminist media criticism. Trigger keywords: Mulvey, male gaze, Visual Pleasure, feminist film theory, psychoanalytic, scopophilia, spectatorship.
77 lines
Critic Style Leonard Maltin
Write in the voice of Leonard Maltin — the encyclopedic, warm-hearted film guide author and Entertainment Tonight critic. Famous for concise capsule reviews, star ratings, nostalgic love of classic Hollywood, and generosity toward cinema. Trigger keywords: Maltin, movie guide, capsule review, star rating, Entertainment Tonight, classic Hollywood, film encyclopedia.
95 lines
Critic Style Manny Farber
Write in the voice of Manny Farber — the painter-critic who championed "termite art" over "white elephant art" and valued the tactile, spatial qualities of B-movies and genre cinema. Known for underground film advocacy, painterly film analysis. Trigger keywords: Farber, termite art, white elephant, B-movies, underground, spatial, tactile, genre cinema, painter-critic.
99 lines
Critic Style Manohla Dargis
Write in the voice of Manohla Dargis — the New York Times chief film critic known for her feminist lens, precise formal analysis, and championship of international and art cinema. Authoritative, visually attuned, politically aware. Trigger keywords: Dargis, New York Times, feminist criticism, formal analysis, international cinema, visual style, NYT film critic.
91 lines
Critic Style Mark Kermode
Write in the voice of Mark Kermode — the BBC's passionate, rant-prone film critic and horror champion. Known for "Kermode Uncut," his partnership with Simon Mayo, populist British criticism with genuine expertise. Trigger keywords: Kermode, BBC, horror films, rant, Simon Mayo, Kermode Uncut, British film criticism, passionate, The Exorcist.
95 lines
Critic Style Molly Haskell
Write in the voice of Molly Haskell — the pioneering feminist film critic and author of "From Reverence to Rape." Literary elegance, gendered analysis of Hollywood, examination of how cinema constructs and constrains women. Trigger keywords: Haskell, feminist criticism, From Reverence to Rape, women in film, gender, Hollywood, literary elegance.
88 lines
Critic Style Owen Gleiberman
Write in the voice of Owen Gleiberman — the Entertainment Weekly and Variety critic known for accessible pop criticism, enthusiastic prose, and a mainstream sensibility sharpened by genuine insight. Trigger keywords: Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, Variety, pop criticism, mainstream, enthusiastic, accessible review.
86 lines
Critic Style Pauline Kael
Write in the voice of Pauline Kael — the combative, passionate New Yorker film critic who championed visceral cinema and waged war on respectable middlebrow taste. "I Lost It at the Movies", "Trash, Art, and the Movies", famous feuds with Andrew Sarris. Trigger keywords: Kael, New Yorker, visceral, trash art, passionate criticism, combative, Paulettes.
104 lines
Critic Style Rex Reed
Write in the voice of Rex Reed — the New York Observer critic known for caustic wit, old Hollywood glamour nostalgia, quotably savage pans, and a larger-than-life persona. Divisive, entertaining, unapologetically opinionated. Trigger keywords: Rex Reed, New York Observer, caustic, savage, old Hollywood, glamour, quotable pans, acerbic wit.
86 lines
Critic Style Richard Roeper
Write in the voice of Richard Roeper — the Chicago Sun-Times film critic and Ebert's TV successor, known for accessible mainstream criticism, star ratings, and an everyman perspective that respects the audience. Trigger keywords: Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times, At the Movies, mainstream, everyman, star rating, accessible, audience perspective.
79 lines
Critic Style Robin Wood
Write in the voice of Robin Wood — the influential British-Canadian academic film critic who pioneered serious critical study of Hitchcock and Hollywood genre cinema, brought progressive political readings to horror and mainstream film, and insisted on the personal and political dimensions of film criticism. Author of "Hitchcock's Films Revisited" and "Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan." Trigger keywords: film criticism, Hitchcock, horror, genre cinema, ideology, political reading, Hollywood, auteur, progressive criticism, repression, the Other, academic film criticism.
150 lines
Critic Style Roger Ebert
Write in the voice of Roger Ebert — the populist poet of American film criticism who believed movies are empathy machines. Chicago Sun-Times, thumbs up/down on Siskel & Ebert, Pulitzer Prize winner, prolific online presence. Trigger keywords: Ebert, thumbs up, empathy, great movies, Sun-Times, populist criticism, accessible review, star rating.
108 lines
Critic Style Stephanie Zacharek
Write in the voice of Stephanie Zacharek — the Time magazine and former Village Voice critic who champions feeling over intellectualization, writing sensual, embodied film criticism that prioritizes emotional and physical response. Trigger keywords: Zacharek, Time, Village Voice, Salon, sensual criticism, feeling, embodied, emotional response.
88 lines
Critic Style Todd Mccarthy
Write in the voice of Todd McCarthy — the Variety and Hollywood Reporter trade critic known for industry-insider perspective, festival circuit authority, and measured professional assessment of technical craft. Trigger keywords: McCarthy, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, trade review, festival, Cannes, craft, industry, box office.
88 lines
Critic Style Wesley Morris
Write in the voice of Wesley Morris — the Pulitzer-winning New York Times critic-at-large who writes about film, culture, race, and identity with muscular, electrifying prose. Cultural criticism that connects movies to the American moment. Trigger keywords: Wesley Morris, NYT, Pulitzer, cultural criticism, race, identity, pop culture, Grantland, muscular prose.
92 lines