Terence McSweeney is a senior lecturer in film and television studies at Solent University, UK. He is widely recognised as one of the leading writers on contemporary American cinema. His book, Black Panther: Interrogating a Cultural Phenomenon (2021) won several prestigious awards. He is also the author of The Contemporary Superhero Film (Short Cuts) (2020), Avengers Assemble! Critical Perspectives on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2018), and The War on Terror and American Film: ‘9/11 Frames per Second’ (2014).

30 years from now, this book could be an important and remarkably detailed snapshot of this cultural moment, a record of the mess and the way film has played a role in this era.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Contemporary American Film as Cultural Battleground1. A Cinema of the Deplorables?2. Cinema of the MeToo and Times Up Era (3522) 3. African American Film in the Era of Black Lives Matter4. Tales from the Border: Drugs, Crime, Rapists and “Some, I Assume, Are Good People”5. “THE LONE WARRIOR!”: The Fears and Fantasies of an Action Hero Presidency6. “America Needs a Superhero”: The Conflicted Fantasylands of the Superhero Film in the Donald Trump EraConclusion: Battlegrounds: “What Kind Of American Are You?”Works Cited FilmographyIndex

Terence McSweeney is a senior lecturer in film and television studies at Solent University, UK. He is widely recognised as one of the leading writers on contemporary American cinema. His book, Black Panther: Interrogating a Cultural Phenomenon (2021) won several prestigious awards. He is also the author of The Contemporary Superhero Film (Short Cuts) (2020), Avengers Assemble! Critical Perspectives on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2018), and The War on Terror and American Film: ‘9/11 Frames per Second’ (2014).

30 years from now, this book could be an important and remarkably detailed snapshot of this cultural moment, a record of the mess and the way film has played a role in this era.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Contemporary American Film as Cultural Battleground1. A Cinema of the Deplorables?2. Cinema of the MeToo and Times Up Era (3522) 3. African American Film in the Era of Black Lives Matter4. Tales from the Border: Drugs, Crime, Rapists and “Some, I Assume, Are Good People”5. “THE LONE WARRIOR!”: The Fears and Fantasies of an Action Hero Presidency6. “America Needs a Superhero”: The Conflicted Fantasylands of the Superhero Film in the Donald Trump EraConclusion: Battlegrounds: “What Kind Of American Are You?”Works Cited FilmographyIndex

Terence McSweeney is a senior lecturer in film and television studies at Solent University, UK. He is widely recognised as one of the leading writers on contemporary American cinema. His book, Black Panther: Interrogating a Cultural Phenomenon (2021) won several prestigious awards. He is also the author of The Contemporary Superhero Film (Short Cuts) (2020), Avengers Assemble! Critical Perspectives on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2018), and The War on Terror and American Film: ‘9/11 Frames per Second’ (2014).

30 years from now, this book could be an important and remarkably detailed snapshot of this cultural moment, a record of the mess and the way film has played a role in this era.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Contemporary American Film as Cultural Battleground1. A Cinema of the Deplorables?2. Cinema of the MeToo and Times Up Era (3522) 3. African American Film in the Era of Black Lives Matter4. Tales from the Border: Drugs, Crime, Rapists and “Some, I Assume, Are Good People”5. “THE LONE WARRIOR!”: The Fears and Fantasies of an Action Hero Presidency6. “America Needs a Superhero”: The Conflicted Fantasylands of the Superhero Film in the Donald Trump EraConclusion: Battlegrounds: “What Kind Of American Are You?”Works Cited FilmographyIndex