Well well well, it has come to this, huh? I know you're all reading this thinking, "Should I really waste my brilliant young mind on a film class? This is just a class in the college of arts and crafts right? GPA boost and that? Simple mathematics..." DON'T YOU FREAKING DARE! YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW! How dare you. From the day I skipped into Professor Daniel Lefkowitz' class, I was hooked. His quirky lecturing style and impromptu discussions really kept my ears perked and eyes engaged every second of the semester. I found myself analyzing movies/TV shows/Ads outside of the classroom. He also generally cares about how you feel and are impacted by his class. His office hours are always a joy to stroll into and pick his mind about whatever you want. It warms my heart that this professor can move me to think critically outside the classroom. It's an easy A if you are progressive with your viewpoints on language in film and are thoughtful in the delivery of your ideas in your essays. Don't even think about bringing up a point without backing it up or he will smack you with that fat B+.

I know what you're thinking, there's no way ol' Lefkowitz is really as good as everyone makes him out to be. However, I can confirm, this professor is one of UVa's gems. From the quirky remarks to the heartwarming phone calls from his mom during lecture, professor Lefkowitz is one of the most enjoyable professors I have had at UVa. You will do fine in this class if you mean what you write and explain your points, Lefky really likes it when you explain your points. Really, explain your points. The only other advice I would give is to take this class with friends, it makes the movie watching fun.

I'm really torn about this course. On one hand, it's incredibly easy and relatively enjoyable due to the movies you get to watch. On the other, I found Lefkowitz an incredibly frustrating professor who never responded to emails and was so obsessed with his own opinion he refused to accept any disagreement. I would occasionally speak up in class and offer a differing opinion, which led to him completely ignoring my point and immediately changing the subject. There are one question multiple choice reading quizzes every class, but theyre ridiculously easy to the point where you can lightly skim the reading and get the right answer. The weekly response papers are also pretty simple, took me about half an hour to write. So overall, I would say take this class if you want an easy A but be prepared to simply parrot back whatever he says in class.

I took this class, because I needed to fulfill a linguistics requirement for my major. A grad student, who had been a TA for this class, warned me that it is not a film class about linguistics - it's more of a linguistics class that just so happens to be about film.

Professor Lefkowitz is a very charismatic lecturer and can be a little scattered. However, I learned to enjoy his quirkiness. He would also occasionally swear to keep you awake and engaged.

At the beginning of every class, we had to answer a multiple-choice question about the reading on an 3"x5" index card (keep a stack of them handy), so read the articles before every class. If you just put your name on the card, you get some participation credit, so don't skip class!

Every week, we had to submit a one-page (single-spaced, double-spaced, 1.5-spaced --- it doesn't matter!) essay on an assigned film or TV show we watched. I had some difficulties writing for Lefkowitz, because he is looking for certain ideas in your writing. He especially likes it when students talk about gender, race, and hierarchies - typical for anthropology. I agree that writing seemed tedious at times, especially when I had to evaluate specific aspects of a film like sound, discursive transcoding, or dialect. However, by writing for him every week, I was more than prepared for his cumulative final, which was definitions, short answer, and essays. I just studied his lecture slides, notes on the readings, and old essays to prepare for the final, which was fair, in my opinion.

He also provided Starbucks during our final, which kind of spoke to my heart. My one disclaimer about this class that it may ruin your childhood, if, like me, you grew up watching Disney films. I think my spirit was a little crushed, when I read that Mulan was "white-washed." However, that's what I signed up for when I majored in anthropology. Just remember that not every anthropology class is what you expect based on the title alone.

Prof Lefkowitz is great- his lectures are very entertaining and the subject matter, film, is obviously very interesting and fun for those that like film! The homework consists of readings and weekly response papers to movies that you watch at home (they can be easily streamed from UVA). The papers were tedious at times, but the movies were all very interesting and very different, as we watched everything from Citizen Kane to Avatar to Dumbo! I learned a lot in this class about film rhetoric, and a LOT about linguistics, which was very interesting, and most of the material was not difficult to grasp. However, be warned, the presentations are VERY unorganized and scattered, so don;t take this class expecting the material to be spoon-fed to you, you sort of have to go with the flow and just absorb what he is teaching. The readings were usually dry and technical, although in class we went over them to make sure everyone was on the same page. Overall, a worthwhile class for film lovers- but be prepared for very unorganized lectures that don't follow our readings (I barely even knew what to study for the final) and the weekly response papers.