Here’s a great recent article by the film critic Matt Zoller Seitz about why it’s important for film critics to pay attention to formal analysis (and why it’s a problem that most contemporary critics don’t). Here’s his thesis:

Form is not just an academic side dish to the main course of content.  We critics of film and TV have a duty to help viewers understand how form and and content interact, and how content is expressed through form. The film or TV critic who refuses to write about form in any serious way abdicates that duty, and abets visual illiteracy.

I think it’s a good argument (of course, I’m biased). If you get a chance, it’s worth a read.