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ReFocus: The Films of Spike Jonze is the first collection of essays on this important and original contemporary filmmaker. It looks at his groundbreaking work in both features and short forms, exploring the impact of his filmmaking across a range of philosophical and cultural discussions.
Each of Jonze's feature films, from Being John Malkovich (1999) to Her (2013), is discussed at length, focusing on issues of authorship, narration, genre and adaptation. As well as the textual aspects of Jonze's feature films, the contributors consider his work in music videos and shorts - investigating his position as a filmmaker on the blurred boundaries between studio and independent modes of production.
Kim Wilkins is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Screen Cultures at the University of Oslo. Wyatt Moss-Wellington is an Assistant Professor in Media and Communication Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China.
List of contents
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Jonze Between the Lines; Kim Wilkins and Wyatt Moss-Wellington
PART I: Authorship and Originality1: Adaptation in
Adaptation in Adaptation in
Adaptation; Wyatt Moss-Wellington
2: "I'll eat you up I love you so." Adaptation, Authorship, and Intermediality in Spike Jonze's
Where the Wild Things Are; Eddie Falvey
3: Converging Indiewood: Spike Jonze, Propaganda Films and the Emergence of Specialty Film Giant USA Films; Yannis Tzioumakis
PART II: Psychology, Identity and Crisis4: "You can be John Malkovich." Celebrity, Absurdity, and Convention in
Being John Malkovich; Kim Wilkins
5: "I can't sleep. I'm losing my hair. I'm fat and repulsive." Crises of Masculinity and Artistry in Spike Jonze's
Adaptation; Julie Levinson
5.5: Spike Jonze's Screenwriting: The Screenplay; Wyatt Moss-Wellington
PART III: Her7: "Are These Feelings Even Real?" Intimacy and Authenticity in Spike Jonze's
Her; Peter Marks
8: Machinic Empathy and Mental Health: The Relational Ethics of Machine Empathy and Artificial Intelligence in
Her; Frances Shaw
9: The "tedious yammering of selves": The End of Intimacy in Spike Jonze's
Her; Richard Smith
PART IV: Beyond the Feature10: Spike Jonze Shorts Stories; Cynthia Felando
11: Spike Jonze, Propaganda/Satellite Films and Music Video Work: Talent Management and the Construction of an Indie-Auteur; Andrew Stubbs
12: Spike Jonze's Abbreviated Art of the Suburbs; Laurel Westrup
About the author
Kim Wilkins is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Screen Cultures, IMK, at the University of Oslo, Norway. She is the author of American Eccentric Cinema (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), as well as articles and chapters on indie cinema and quality television.Wyatt Moss-Wellington is Assistant Professor in Media and Communication Studies and Director of Teaching in the School of International Communications at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. He is the author of Narrative Humanism: Kindness and Complexity in Fiction and Film and co-editor of ReFocus: The Films of Spike Jonze, both released by Edinburgh University Press in 2019. Moss-Wellington received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 2017. He is also a progressive folk multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, and has released four studio albums: The Kinder We (2017), Sanitary Apocalypse (2014), Gen Y Irony Stole My Heart (2011) and The Supermarket and the Turncoat (2009).
