The lights of Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre dim, and a hush falls upon the crowd. The moment many Star Wars fans have waited for has finally arrived: the premiere showing of the newest movie in the series, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, begins in a few moments. In the balcony of the theater, a Revere alumni sits in the center of the second row. Below him George Lucas and J.J. Abrams wait for the movie as well. The film starts, and the crowd roars with excitement. The man watches closely, taking mental notes of the cinematic aspects of the film, as he will be writing a critical review of the film in the near future.

1999 Revere alumni Scott Mendelson has worked for Forbes, a well-respected bi-weekly business magazine, since 2013. Working mainly from home, Mendelson writes movie reviews and box office analysis articles. He has showed interest in films from a young age, as he explained.

“I was always into movies and I like writing, and I figured from a very young age that I wanted to make movies. In fact, I went into to college for what I thought would be film production and ended up changing majors to film theory criticism. . . . I graduated from college and moved to [Los Angeles, California] with the intent of cutting trailers. That was something I had done once or twice in film school and I enjoyed that more than any of the other stuff I had done,” Mendelson said.

His father, Bruce Mendelson, also spoke of his fascination with film. He explained that his son has loved movies for most of his childhood.

“[Scott] was obsessed with movies from the time he could recognize a picture. . . . As he could read, he got to the point where the ratings mattered to him. . . . We would be on vacation, . . . [and the hotels] would have the movies that they were renting and they would keep playing previews of them. He could have sat and watched them all day,” Bruce said.

Mendelson wrote movie reviews and editorials for the Revere High School Lantern when he was in high school and contributed reviews to a local paper as well. He eventually moved out to Los Angeles, California and began writing reviews for free. Eventually, Mendelson began writing for Valley Scene Magazine, and in 2008, he started his own blog. In a few years, Forbes hired him. He described how this transpired.

“[I blogged] for five years until one of the Forbes editors who had read my work and occasionally linked to it, or mentioned it in her work recruited me. She asked her co-editor to bring me on board in April, 2013,” Mendelson said.

Though Mendelson has always written movie reviews, his main focus for Forbes consists of analyzing the success of new movies when they first come out and predicting their success in the weekend after they open. In his reviews, he considers many aspects of a film, including plot, pacing, acting, editing, and other characteristics. Forbes deputy editor for business news Jeremy Bogaisky spoke of his experiences with Mendelson and his works.

“What stands out about Scott is his exceptionally strong work rate. . . . He’s seemingly tireless. He has a good eye for sharp angles, isn’t afraid to take somewhat controversial stances, and he has fun with it — that sense of fun is infectious for readers. He’s a regular on our list of the most-read contributors of the week,” Bogaisky said.

Recently, Mendelson attended the aforementioned Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiere and took his father as his guest for his 70th birthday. The elder Mendelson stated he enjoyed going and described the event.

“They took four blocks of Hollywood Boulevard, which is in downtown Hollywood, and blocked it off and covered it. . . . The red carpet opened up with twelve storm troopers in their gear marching in . . . [and] about an hour before the movie was supposed to start when everybody was getting in there, two executives from Disney came out, J.J. Abrams, who’s the director of it, and the whole cast came on stage where we were, in that theater. They talked about making the movie and all the stars. For about an hour, they telecasted by TV to the other two theaters, so it ended up we were in the best spot. When the movie first went on, the crowd went crazy, and then every time one of the stars from the original Star Wars movies would come on the screen, they would go nuts. It was quite a time,” the elder Mendelson said.

Mendelson shared his advice for students who may want to pursue a career similar to his own, saying that one should constantly go to the theater and write for experience, if not for anything else.

“I did not go to journalism school, but if you want to do it, do it. But make sure you are smart and educated enough to make a living while you are waiting for the film critic thing to work out, or if the film critic thing does not work out. I always had some type of fulltime work, even when I was blogging for free. That was one of the reasons I could be patient and I could wait,” Mendelson said.

The lights of the theater rise, and the audience roars once more. As Mendelson stands, his mind begins whirring with ideas. He and his father walk out of the theater, chatting about the film. On the ride home, he begins to formulate his review as the car drives away from the premiere.