Most people love movies, and they love to talk about movies, so it’s great to be able to talk about them when you are learning English! Americans especially love to talk about movies because we make so many of them.

Let’s start by becoming familiar with the different types of categories we have for movies. This will let you tell people what kinds of movies you like and also understand more about movies that you read and hear about. If you want to talk about movies, understanding genre names is essential! Here we go!

Comedy= Haha! Comedies are movies that are funny, humorous, silly, etc. Comedies are important for learning English because they of course contain a lot of English vocabulary and Idioms. In addition, comedies are a way to become familiar with cultural humor. What is funny in English is not always funny in another language or culture. On the other hand, comedies are important for understanding that some things are funny in most languages and cultures and that sometimes we are not as different as we think we are.

Some examples of comedies are: Anchorman, The Hangover, Shaun of the Dead, Bridesmaids, In Bruges, Blazing Saddles, and Borat.

Romance= These movies are about love.

Some good romances: Silver Linings Playbook, Casablanca, The Notebook, Pride and Prejudice, and In the Mood for Love.

Sometimes we mix genres together, because most movies are not just one thing, even though we put them in one category. So we have another genre (sometimes called a “sub-genre”) that mixes romances and comedies we call it rom-com.

Some popular rom-coms: When Harry Met Sally, Clueless, Bridget Jones’s Diary, 10 Things I Hate About You, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sleepless in Seattle, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Drama= these movies are very serious. They deal with serious subjects like family, politics, and other complicated situations. Dramas are terrific for practicing your English listening and vocabulary because there are often a lot of conversations in dramas.

Some of my favorite dramas are: The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, Chinatown, Spotlight, No Country for Old Men, Whiplash, and In Bruges.

Wait a minute! Didn’t we put In Bruges in with the comedies? And now we’re saying it’s a drama? What’s going on here? What’s going on is that mix we mentioned earlier. Movies are usual not always serious or funny. Even many of the funniest movies usually have a serious scene or two and even the most serious movies give us a much-needed laugh. For example, even a movie as serious as Schindler’s List contains several humorous scenes. Sometimes when a movie is a drama that also has a lot of comedy, we call it a dramedy (this is called a “blend word”).

In Bruges is probably a dramedy, but most people would probably call it a black comedy. This is another subgenre, and it’s a really fun one. Black comedies are comedies that deal with very “dark” subjects, such as death, war, drugs and other taboo subjects. One of the oldest black comedies is Arsenic and Old Lace, which is a story about two nice old ladies who murder people. Other black comedies would include Pulp Fiction, Dr. Strangelove, Network,  A Serious Man, Fargo, The Death of Stalin, Heathers and Delicatessen.

Let’s move on to a genre that is popular with most movie lovers: action.

What is action? You know, car chases, shooting, jumping, fighting, flying, and lots of other things where you move. There is usually less dialogue (talking) in action movies. Some of the most popular action movies are Mission: Impossible, Fast and Furious, Die Hard, SkyFall, Oldboy, all the Marvel movies, John Wick, Indiana Jones and Mad Max.

Let’s do another fun one: sci-fi, which is short for science fiction. aliens, space ships, robots, the future, time travel, lasers, blue creatures on other planets! Sci-fi.

Movies: Star Wars, Avatar, Alien, The Terminator, Interstellar, The Matrix.

The next genre is one that people either love or hate: horror! What is horror? Ghosts, scary stuff. Some horror movies are gory, which means that they have lots of blood and other human body parts. Other horror movies are more suspenseful, which means that that make your heart beat really fast.

Some fun horror movies: The Shining, The Exorcist, Get Out, Rosemary’s Baby, A Quiet Place, Aliens (sci-fi/horror!), IT.

Maybe the most “American” film genre is the western. Cowboys. Big hats. Guns. Horses. Native Americans. Westerns are usually a mix of action and drama. A few famous westerns: Rio Bravo, Tombstone, Dances with Wolves, Unforgiven, High Noon, Once Upon a Time in the West.

We can’t forget fantasy films, which often include magic, mythology or the supernatural. Here are some good fantasy films to make learning English enjoyable: Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz, The Princess Bride, Mary Poppins, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Neverending Story.

Finally, one of the best genres for practicing your English listening skills is documentaries; this is because they often include slowly spoken narration the is connected to visuals that make the story easy to follow. One of the best makers of documentaries is a guy named Ken Burns. He has made documentaries on a wide range of topics, and you should have no trouble finding a movie of his that you are interested in.

There are more genres and many subgenres or movies, but hopefully these can serve as a useful guide as you explore movies to watch in English.

Don’t forget that the past 25 years has been what many call a “Golden Age” of television and there are a lot of series to choose from.

One last note to help you talk about movies is to check out the website imdb. It is an amazing resource where you can explore movies, television, actors and directors.

Here is the link:

https://www.imdb.com

Imdb can really help you up your game* when you and friends talk about movies!

We hope this post has been helpful in understanding how to talk about movies in English! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below! Watch some movies in English!

*https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/up-game