One of the world's most erudite and entertaining film critics on the state of cinema in the post-digital--and post-9/11--age. This witty and allusive book, in the style of classic film theorists/critics like Andre Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer, includes considerations of global cinema's most important figures and films, from Lars von Trier and Zia Jiangke to "WALL-E," "Avatar" and "Inception."