American Smart Cinema examines a contemporary type of US filmmaking that exists at the intersection of mainstream, art and independent cinema and often gives rise to absurd, darkly comic and nihilistic effects.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Authorship: Whit Stillman's ‘Yuppie’ Trilogy, Flirt, Adaptation
• 2. Narrative: The Squid and the Whale, The Safety of Objects, Palindromes
• 3. Melodrama: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums
• 4. Music: Simple Men, Magnolia, Ghost World
• 5. Suburbia and Utopia: Happiness, Your Friends and Neighbors, The Chumscrubber, Donnie Darko
• Conclusion
• Bibliography