Popping Culture

Introduction xi

Introduction 3

“The only place to go is inside”:

Confusions about Sexuality and Class

from Kids to Superbad 5

“What’s a smart boy like you doing in

a class like this?”: Intelligence and Class

in Good Will Hunting 15

Fashion, Advertising, and the Consumer

Society 25

The Public Mind and the Pictures

in Our Heads: A Riff 35

“American Idol”atry: The Practice

of Democracy in the Age of Reality

Television 43

Introduction 53

From “Ellen” to Brüno: The Love That

Dared Not Speak Its Name Goes Big 55

Girl Meets Boy: Romantic Comedies

After Feminism 65

Contents

This Is for Fighting, This Is for Fun: Camerawork and Gunplay

in Reality-Based Crime Shows 75

The Completely Accessible Star Persona of Mr. Keanu Reeves 87

Gus Van Sant’s History of Homosexuality 101

Virtually Getting It On: “Sex” in Film and Television Narratives,

1992—2010 109

Introduction 123

“I felt like, ‘This guy’s really hurting me.’ And it hurt.”: Funny

Men in Pain from Zoolander to Anchorman 125

“Get your mind right”: Juvenile Renewed 135

“We’re all quite small, really”: Races, Classes,

Globalisms in “Heroes” 147

On Seeing and Not Seeing Race: Crash and the Politics

of Bad Faith 159

Introduction 177

Beautiful Ever After: “Extreme Makeover” and the Magical,

Mythical Spectacle of Rebirth 179

They Sing the Body Ecstatic: Television Commercials and

Captured Music 191

Aliens Amok: Men in Black Policing Subjectivity Onscreen 201

The Wonderful, Horrible Films of Paul Verhoeven 213

Air Wars Live from (Baghdad)2 225

Embedded: The News of War and the War Over News 243

A Spanish Summer Spreads Around the World: Hoop Dreams

and Globalization 253

American Sundown: No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

and the Question of the Twilight Western 261

Introduction 271

Return of the Horror Apocalypse 273

Looking for Laughs in All the Wrong Places: Quentin Tarantino

and the Holocaust 283

“I have the stuff that you want”: Michael Jackson and the Crotch

Shot 293

From Star Wars to Avatar: Contemporary Special Effects,

Industrial Light and Magic, and the Legacy of the 1970s 301

Terra Incognita 313

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