What are the most appropriate theories and methods for analyzing contemporary America cinema? This book answers this question by taking an innovative approach to writing about individual movies: in each of the main chapters the authors examine the assumptions behind one traditional theory of film (e.g. auterism, narratolgy, psychanalysis), distil a method of analysis from it, and then analyze a contemporary American movie. They then go beyond the traditional theory by analyzing the same movie using a more current theory and method (e.g. new media theory, deconstruction, cognitivism).