PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Movie or TV review

How to Cite a Movie or TV Review in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a movie or TV review starts with the reviewer's last name and first name and the review's title in quotation marks. Then comes a description: Review of, the film or series title in italics (an episode title goes in quotation marks), and the people who made it, with directed by or written by. It ends with the journal, magazine, newspaper, or website where the review ran, the date, and the DOI or URL. The in-text citation names the reviewer: (Mirabito and Heck 499).

The format

Reviewer Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Review." Review of Title of the Film, directed by First Name Last Name. Journal or Website Name, vol. #, no. #, Mon. Year, pp. #–#, https://doi.org/xxxx.

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 27, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Add a movie or TV review with the form, not the reference search. A review's DOI comes back from PERRLA's search as an ordinary journal article, with the show's details run into the title and no Review of description. Choose Reviews. Under Choose a type, pick Review in a journal, newspaper, or magazine, Review on a website, or Review on a blog. In What kind of article are you referencing?, pick A film or movie, A television series, or A television episode.

Add the person who wrote the review as the Reviewer. Then add who made the film or show: Director of Reviewed Work, Writer of Reviewed Work, or Writer & Director of Reviewed Work for someone who did both. Type the review's headline in Review Title, or leave it empty when the review has none, and the film, series, or episode title in the box below it (Reviewed Film Title, Reviewed TV Series Title, or Reviewed TV Episode Title). Fill in the Publication Date and where the review ran, then the DOI for the Review or the URL for the Review. PERRLA writes Review of, directed by, and written by, puts the titles in title case, and adds the italics or quotation marks on the reviewed title.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Reviewer

Start with the person who wrote the review. Give the last name, a comma, and the first name as the review prints it, then a period.

Ebert, Roger.

Two reviewers: invert only the first name, then write and and the second name in normal order. Three or more: the first reviewer, a comma, and et al. No reviewer named? Start with the review's title.

Mirabito, Lucas A., and Nicholas C. Heck.

2. Review title

If the review has its own headline, put it in quotation marks and title case, with the period inside the closing quotation mark.

"Bringing LGBTQ Youth Theater into the Spotlight."

Many reviews are headed only by the film's or show's name and details. That's not a review title, so leave this part out and go straight to the description.

3. Review of the film or show

Write Review of and the title of what was reviewed. A film or a whole series goes in italics. An episode is part of a series, so its title goes in quotation marks, with the comma inside the closing mark. MLA capitalizes the reviewed title in title case, with every preposition lowercase.

Review of The Year We Thought about Love,

Review of "2:00 P.M.,"

Reviewing one episode? Name the series in your sentence, so your reader knows which show it's from.

4. Who made it

After the title, a comma and the people the review is about, each with a label for their role: directed by, written by, or directed and written by. Names go in normal order. End with a period.

directed by Penny Marshall.

Name whoever matters most for your paper. For a series, that's often its creator; when the creator also wrote the episodes, written by fits.

5. Where the review ran

The journal, magazine, newspaper, or website is the container, so its name goes in italics, followed by a comma. For a journal, add vol., no., the date, and pp. with the page range. For a website, give the full date, written day, month, year.

RogerEbert.com, 20 Dec. 1990,

6. DOI or URL

End with the review's DOI as a full https://doi.org/ link, or the URL for a review you read online, and a period. A URL drops the https://.

www.rogerebert.com/reviews/awakenings-1990.

Examples

A film review in a journal

Two reviewers wrote about Ellen Brodsky's documentary about an LGBTQ youth theater troupe in the December 2016 issue of an APA journal. The review has its own title, and the film's director follows directed by.

  • In-text citation(Mirabito and Heck 499)
  • Narrative citationMirabito and Heck describe … (499).

A film review on a website

Roger Ebert's review of Awakenings, Penny Marshall's film of Oliver Sacks's account of patients with encephalitis lethargica, is on RogerEbert.com. The page is headed only by the film's name, so the review has no title of its own. A website review takes the full date, and online reviews have no page numbers, so the in-text citation is the name alone.

  • In-text citation(Ebert)
  • Narrative citationEbert writes that …

A TV series review in a journal

A review of Dopesick, the Hulu series about the opioid crisis, in BJPsych Bulletin, the Royal College of Psychiatrists' journal. It ran online in November 2022 and in the October 2023 print issue, which is the version with a volume, issue, and page. Its heading is just the show's details, so it has no title of its own. Danny Strong created the series and wrote or co-wrote seven of its eight episodes, so he's credited with written by. The review fills one page, so the in-text citation needs no page number.

  • In-text citation(Witter)
  • Narrative citationWitter observes that …

A TV episode review in a journal

Two palliative medicine physicians reviewed one episode of The Pitt, "2:00 P.M." (season 2, episode 8), in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. An episode review puts the episode title in quotation marks and credits its writer, Joe Sachs, and its director, John Cameron. The entry has no slot for the series, so name The Pitt in your sentence.

  • In-text citation(Chin and Choudhury 1641)
  • Narrative citationIn their review of "2:00 P.M.," an episode of The Pitt, Chin and Choudhury note that … (1641).

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for a movie or TV review names the reviewer, not the director, because the review is what you're quoting. Add the page when the review has page numbers and runs longer than one page.

  • One reviewer: the last name, plus the page for a review longer than one page. Witter's review fills one page: (Witter)
  • Two reviewers: both last names joined by and: (Mirabito and Heck 499), (Chin and Choudhury 1641)
  • Three or more reviewers: the first reviewer and et al.
  • Online review: no page numbers, so the name alone: (Ebert)
  • No reviewer named: the review's title in quotation marks, shortened if it's long.
  • Name in your sentence: give the page alone at the end of the sentence, or leave the parentheses off when there's no page: Ebert writes that …

Writing about the film or show itself, not the review? Cite the film or episode in its own Works Cited entry.

Common mistakes

  • (Marshall)(Ebert)The in-text citation points to the review, so it names the reviewer. Penny Marshall directed the film; Roger Ebert wrote the review.
  • Ebert, R. (1990, December 20). [Review of the film Awakenings, by P. Marshall, Dir.].Ebert, Roger. Review of Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall.That's APA. MLA spells out first names, drops the square brackets, writes the role as directed by before the name, and moves the date after the website's name.
  • Review of 2:00 P.M., directed by John CameronReview of "2:00 P.M.," directed by John CameronAn episode is part of a larger work, so its title goes in quotation marks, with the comma inside. Only whole films and series go in italics.
  • Ebert, Roger. "Awakenings."Ebert, Roger. Review of Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall.A page headed only by the film's name has no review title. Describe the review instead, with the film's title in italics.
  • Review of Awakenings, directed by Marshall, Penny.Review of Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall.Only the first name in the whole entry is inverted. The director's name goes in normal order.

Quick checklist

  • Reviewer first, last name inverted, or the review title if no reviewer is named
  • Review title in quotation marks and title case, if there is one
  • Review of, then the film or series in italics, or the episode in quotation marks
  • directed by or written by and the names in normal order
  • Journal, magazine, or website name in italics, with the date
  • DOI or URL, ending with a period

Questions students ask

Do I cite the reviewer or the director in MLA?

The reviewer. The review is the work you're citing, so the reviewer goes first in the Works Cited entry and in the in-text citation. The director appears only after directed by in the description.

How do I cite a movie review with no title in MLA?

Leave the title out and let the description take its place: Ebert, Roger. Review of Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall. Then give the website or journal as usual. Don't put Review of in quotation marks or italics.

Is a TV episode title italicized in MLA?

No. An episode is part of a series, so its title goes in quotation marks. The series title goes in italics. A film is a whole work, so it goes in italics too.

Who do I name for a TV series: the director, the writer, or the creator?

MLA lets you name the people who matter most for your paper, each with a label for their role. A series often has many directors, so the creator or head writer is the usual choice. For Dopesick, Danny Strong created the show and wrote most of its episodes, so the entry credits him with written by.

Do I need an access date for an online movie review?

Usually not. MLA makes the access date optional, and a dated review doesn't need one. Add one if the review has no date or your instructor asks for it.

How is MLA different from APA for a movie or TV review?

MLA spells out first names, writes the description as Review of Title, directed by Name with no square brackets, and italicizes a website's name. The date goes after the container, and the in-text citation uses a page number, not the year.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapters 5 and 6 (the core elements, descriptions in place of titles, the Contributor element with labels like directed by, containers, and in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's ninth-edition post on films (directed by, Handbook 5.39 and 5.44) and its answers on reviews of performances, information about movies online, sources with no author, one-page sources, and prepositions in titles. Example reviews are the ones verified for the APA 7 page on APA PsycNet, RogerEbert.com, Cambridge Core, and the Journal of Palliative Medicine's article page; the MLA-only details (the reviewers' full names Lucas A. Mirabito and Nicholas C. Heck, and the issue months Dec. 2016, Oct. 2023, and Nov. 2026) checked in Crossref and on New Day Films' page for the film on October 27, 2026.

PERRLA builds the review entry from the form, with Review of and directed by written for you.

Try PERRLA free for 7 days