ABOUT THIS BOOK

Screen Captures: Film in the Age of Emergency offers a vibrant and accessible collection of essays that explore how films and changes in the media industries reflect and influence our political, cultural, technological, and ecological moment. Critic Stephen Lee Naish reveals what lies just out of frame: the climate crisis, the ongoing Disney-fication of franchises, the audience's active participation in the rewriting and reproduction of their attention, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the movie theaters. Screen Captures explores these tensions from the rebooted Star Wars franchise to the dominance of superheroes, the pop cultural memeification of Nicholas Cage to the artistic worlds of David Lynch, the failing American Dream in the American Pie franchise, and the female interpretation of toxic masculinity on screen and in public life. Naish argues that film isn’t merely escapism and entertainment—it’s a political space that bleeds into our daily lives. Appealing to pop culture fans and film critics alike, these essays challenge the reader to question, critique, and go beyond passive consumption of what we see on our screens.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Stephen Lee Naish (he/him) is a British/Canadian writer and author of several books of nonfiction. His writing has appeared in Aquarium Drunkard, Film International, The Quietus, Cineaction, Dirty Movies, and many other online and in-print journals. His books include Create or Die: Essays on the Artistry of Dennis Hopper (AUP), Deconstructing Dirty Dancing (Zero Books), Riffs and Meaning (Headpress), and Music and Sound in the Films of Dennis Hopper (Routledge). He lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

REVIEWS

“Stephen Lee Naish is one of our best film critics and cultural commentators. In this volume, he looks at popular movies to develop insights on subjects as varied as the viciousness and depravity of Donald Trump, and the ways that younger people today have been betrayed by the collapse of the American Dream.”— Steven Shaviro, Wayne State University

“Original, sharp, and thought-provoking, Screen Captures: Film in the Age of Emergency is a kaleidoscopic blending of cinema, politics, and pop-culture.”— Iain Reid, author of I'm Thinking of Ending Things and Foe

“Stephen Lee Naish is a perceptive social critic and a genuine movie enthusiast. This book marries both in fruitful tension. Fresh readings of familiar films abound. His examination of the powerful influence of fan culture is illuminating. The business dynamics of this rapidly evolving industry are well researched and articulated. Screen Captures is an elegantly written call to see popular cinema as a rich window into the complex, precarious and confusing world we all share.”— Clarke Mackey, filmmaker and author of Random Acts of Culture: Reclaiming Art and Community in the 21st Century

“Following Stephen Lee Naish through his journey with film is fun and enlightening. Naish is right. Film ‘says a great deal about who we are, where we come from, and what we can strive to be.”— David Kyle Johnson, author of Great Course's Sci-Phi: Science Fiction as Philosophy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Star Wars Accelerationism: The Triumphs and Failures of the Sequel Trilogy
Shut Up, Capitalism!: Socialist Superheroes in Film and Life
Post-Catastrophe Cinema: It’s the End of the World and We Know It
Metropolis Now!: Navigating the Cinematic City
Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: Cinematic SCUM Masculinity
Northern Exposure: North Korea in Film and as Film
The Middle Word in Life: The Creative life of Dennis Hopper and David Lynch
Being Nicolas Cage: From National Laughing Stock to National Treasure
All-American Tragedy: The American Pie Trilogy as Cautionary Capitalist Tale
The Opening Line of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Book and Film)
Crying at Robots: Emotional Responses to Artificial Life
The Slow Dissolve: Goodbye to Reality, Hello to Hyperreality