Hollywood Puzzle Films

Warren Buckland is Reader in Film Studies at Oxford Brookes University. He is the author/editor of nine books, including The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory (with Edward Branigan; Routledge, 2013), Film Theory and Contemporary Hollywood Movies (Routledge, 2009), and Studying Contemporary American Film: A Guide to Movie Analysis (with Thomas Elsaesser; Bloomsbury, 2002). He also edits the New Review of Film and Television Studies.

• Introduction: Ambiguity, ontological pluralism, and cognitive dissonance in the Hollywood puzzle film Warren Buckland Part I: Narratology and systems theory 1. Complex narratives - Jan Simons 2. Puzzled Hollywood and the return of complex films - Maria Poulaki Part II: Inception, the archetypal Hollywood puzzle film 3. Unravelling the puzzle of Inception - Geoff King 4. ‘Show, don’t tell’: Considering the utility of diagrams as a tool for understanding complex narratives - Elliot Panek 5. ‘Pain is in the mind’: Dream narrative in Inception and Shutter Island - Paolo Russo 6. Modular spacetime in the ‘intelligent’ blockbuster: Inception and Source Code - Allan Cameron and Richard Misek 7. Complexity and simplicity in Inception and Five Dedicated to Ozu - William Brown Part III: The science fiction Hollywood puzzle film 8. Philip K. Dick, the mind-game film, and retroactive causality - Thomas Elsaesser 9. Fourth dimensions, seventh senses: The work of mind-gaming in the age of electronic reproduction - Garrett Stewart 10. Source Code’s video game logic - Warren Buckland 11. The image of time in post-classical Hollywood: Donnie Darko and Southland Tales - Bruce Isaacs Part IV: The drama Hollywood puzzle film 12. Re-viewing Vantage Point - Paul Cobley 13. The Butterfly Effect upon its Spectator - Edward Branigan 14. Solving suicide: Facing the complexity of The Hours - Lucy Bolton 15. Knowledge and narrativity in Premonition and The Lake House - Gary Bettinson