Week 3 brought about our first screening, which was City of Gold, directed by Laura Gabbert. The film documents Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold through his culinary adventures through Los Angeles.

The aspects of the documentary that stood out to me the most were the ways in which a simple review could potentially change the lives of the small business owners whose traditional and modernised cuisines fly under the radar in the critical community of L.A. It made the whole concept of critical writing so much more meaningful in the sense that there is an entire society of critics dedicated solely to providing a voice for those who don’t have the platform to do so themselves.

We were tasked with taking notes on the film to prepare us to write a critical review of it, thus making another addition to our steadily growing portfolios.

We did a close reading on one of Gold’s published reviews in the L.A. Times and analysed his writing style, honing in on his descriptive language and ability to engage audiences so profoundly that their mouth waters.