Palimpsest

American commercial filmmaking has, in the last decade or so, been increasingly characterized by what I call the stylistics of post-continuity. This is a filmmaking practice in which a preoccupation with moment-to-moment excitement, and with delivering continual shocks to the audience, trumps any concern with traditional continuity, either on a shot-by-shot level or in terms of larger narrative structures.

Shaviro’s heroic attempt to put meat on the intellectual bones of mainstream action filmmaking. Long overdue and hugely righteous, Post Cinematic Affect (2010) is easily one of the best books I read in 2011.