The grading is as follows, but please be advised I had a crotchety history professor at Rutgers who said of a B that it was a solid mark for a solid effort: an entry level good grade. You go up or down from there. I like that way of thinking.
A+
I expect only the most influential classics will be in this category. You could count them on all your toes and fingers. We're talking about the best of all time. Citizen Kane. Apocalypse Now. The Bicycle Thief. They usually have their own attendant mythology and are the films that often have the strongest cultural resonance.
A
Classics with a flaw or limited influence, but classics nonetheless. Their brilliance is widely acknowledged in most cases. In rare cases, leaders in a genre will be at this level, but they are the groundbreaking exceptions.
A–
There are many pictures in this category: above excellent but perhaps short of classic. They aspire to be iconic but slightly fumble their vision, dialogue or casting.
B+
An excellent film. I won't rank most formulaic genre pictures above this grade, but they're not striving to be art anyway. A B+ is a very respectable grade and reflects the strong efforts put into making the film.
B
This is a good film but flawed in a major way or unable to communicate anything in terms of quality above the usual level that 75% of film releases have.
B–
Consider this a pity grade given to those films I would like to have seen rise to the standard of a B. Typically on reflection I'll upgrade to B or drop it to a C, often months after viewing.
C+
The "road to hell is paved with good intentions" grade.
C
Don't bother. Just don't.
F
No D's in my book. You pass or fail. In some ways this is the most interesting mark a film can get. Gigli, for example, is a beautiful mess, fascinating in its gross inability to entertain or inform in any conventional sense.
* * * * *
A final word on genres and comparisons. One might complain that I gave an action movie a respectable grade where a more serious film received a lower grade. The temptation to compare the two films and grades will occur to the reader, but I don't compare art house films to teen flicks driven by scatological and sexual jokes. Two different animals; two different sets of standards.
Let's have no complaining, then, about Star Wars, Dirty Harry and The Grapes of Wrath each getting an A.
