How has American cinema engaged with the rapid transformation of cities and urban culture since the 1960s? And what role have films and film industries played in shaping and mediating the "postindustrial" city? This collection argues that cinema and cities have become increasingly intertwined in the era of neoliberalism, urban branding, and accelerated gentrification. Examining a wide range of films from Hollywoodblockbusters to indie cinema, it considers the complex, evolving relationship between moving image cultures and the spaces, policies, and politics of US cities from New York, Los Angeles, and Boston to Detroit, Oakland, and Baltimore. The contributors address questions of narrative, genre, and style alongside the urban contexts of production, exhibition, and reception, discussing films including The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973),Cruising (1980), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), King of New York (1990), Inception (2010), Frances Ha (2012), Fruitvale Station (2013), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), and Doctor Strange (2016).

American Cinema and Urban Change: Industry, Genre, and Politics from Nixon to Trump, Johan Andersson, King's College London, UK and Lawrence Webb, University of Sussex, UKPart One: Film Production and the Postindustrial TurnDaniel Bell, Post-industrial Society and Los Angeles Cinema c.a 1967-72, Mark Shiel, King's College London, UKMade in New York: Film Production, the City Government, and Public Protest in the Koch Era, Lawrence Webb, University of Sussex, UK You Don't Have to Call Us Home, but Please Stay Here: The City Film Commission, Nathan Koob, Oakland University, USAThe Boston Movie Boom, Carlo Rotella, Boston College, USAPart Two Postindustrial Narratives and Aesthetics The New Boston and the Grip of Tradition: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Brink's Job (1978), and The Verdict (1982), Stanley Corkin, University of Cincinnati, USAUndead Detroit: Crisis Capitalism and Urban Ruin, Camilla Fojas, University of Virginia, USAThe Flexible Urban Imaginary: Postindustrial Cities in Inception, The Adjustment Bureau, and Doctor Strange, Nick Jones, University of York, UKA Networked Life: Representations of Connectivity and Structural Inequalities in Fruitvale Station, Amy Corbin, Muhlenberg College, USAPart Three Cinema and Gentrification 9 For Whom Are the Movies?: The Landscape of Movie Exhibition in the Gentrified City, Brendan Kredell, Oakland University, USAEbbets Field and Other Monuments: Outer Borough Neighborhoods and Revanchism in 1990s Cinema, Erica Stein, Vassar College, USAGentrification by Genre: Desperately Seeking Susan and the 1980s Screwball, Johan Andersson, King's College London, UKFrances Doesn't Live Here Anymore: Gender, Crisis, and the Creative City in Frances Ha and The Giant Mechanical Man, Martha Shearer, King's College London, UKIndex