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Rating: 
Summary: Abysmal.
Review: Oh, this book is so terrible. After reading just one essay, I wanted to hurl the book across the room. Many of the essays are rife with factual errors and most are short, ill-informed diatribes carping about the sad state of cinema. Guess what? That's nothing new. There were just as many terrible movies made during the 1930s as there are today and there were just as many people griping about it then (except they didn't have lofty positions as heads of cinema studies departments).Many thought that once the novelty of the motion picture wore off in the early 1900s that that was the end of cinema. Then another "end of cinema" came with the introduction of sound. Then another with competition from TV. Then another with competition from video games. The cinema isn't going anywhere. Radio, TV, video, the internet - none of these things have killed it and nothing is going to. Do yourself a favor and read a book written about movies by someone who actually likes movies like Pauline Kael, David Bordwell, or Noel Burch.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Movie Book!
Review: This is probably the best film book I've read in the last five years. The organization of the book is extremely intelligent, the range of authors is incredible, and their comments are always useful, thought provoking, and fun to read. Most books that cover a range of films offer only descriptions of individual movies. Lewis' book, of course, tells us about the important films of the nineties. But it also explains the practices of the film industry during the period, the important stylistic developments, the conflict and cooperation between independent companies and established studios, shifts in the thinking about censorship, the relationships between video and film, and a whole lot more. The tone of the writers is fantastic--they're all movie fans, they take movies very seriously, and they connect movies to important cultural and political trends. This book is a constant pleasure. If you have any interest in the films of the last decade of the twentieth century, this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie Book!
Review: This is probably the best film book I've read in the last five years. The organization of the book is extremely intelligent, the range of authors is incredible, and their comments are always useful, thought provoking, and fun to read. Most books that cover a range of films offer only descriptions of individual movies. Lewis' book, of course, tells us about the important films of the nineties. But it also explains the practices of the film industry during the period, the important stylistic developments, the conflict and cooperation between independent companies and established studios, shifts in the thinking about censorship, the relationships between video and film, and a whole lot more. The tone of the writers is fantastic--they're all movie fans, they take movies very seriously, and they connect movies to important cultural and political trends. This book is a constant pleasure. If you have any interest in the films of the last decade of the twentieth century, this is the book for you.
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