David Greven has produced a stimulating and wide-ranging study which focusses on a range of films which span the Bush-to-Bush era. The theoretical framework is informed by psychoanalytic and queer theory, focussing on the central concepts of narcissism and masochism, as explored in close analyses of Hollywood films which comprise the so-called “queer renaissance” in cinema heralded by the onset of the 1990s (4). Greven draws on theorists including Freud, Lura Mulvey, Gaylyn Studlar, and Lee Edelman, in order to present the case that although the concept of narcissism may often be viewed from a negative perspective, it can in fact be used in a more positive performative sense in terms of creating an erotic identification between the film and its audience. This claim is further emphasized by Greven's investigation of how critics have tended to view masochism as offering “a resistant mode of masculine subjectivity” (7). In contrast, Greven contends that the performance of masculine masochism frequently upholds, rather than undermines, traditional concepts of masculinity. The exploration of these two central ideas in relation to a range of well-known Hollywood films offers a fresh and stimulating perspective which problematizes the manner in which the concept of masculinity may be seen to be performed and received by the viewer.

Beginning with an analysis of Brian De Palma's Casualties of War (1989), an anti-Vietnam War film which coincided with the year in which George Bush senior took up the presidency, Greven examines how a tension between “negative narcissism” and “heroic masochoism” may be perceived within the drama depicted of the abduction, rape, and killing of a Vietnamese woman by a number of American male soldiers, an act which was opposed by one member of the group who was associated with homosexuality by its ringleader (8). One of the strengths of Greven's book is its close focus on aesthetic aspects of film which are effectively linked to psychoanalytical concepts and wider debates concerning the representation of masculinity in the Bush-to-Bush era. In his analysis of The Silence of the Lambs Greven examines how the film was celebrated for its feminism but criticized for its homophobia. Through his exploration of the concept of fetishism as embodied in the serial killer character Jame Gumb, Greven offers an alternative reading in which he argues that the depiction of queer masculinity and femininity should be read as interrelated dimensions of the film's reevaluation of patriarchal masculinity. In his subsequent discussion of what he terms “the double protagonist film” Greven investigates how Fight Club may be seen as a reaction against the idea of a “softening” of American males within the time span of the Clinton presidency (9). Thus the concept of narcissistic masculinity in this film is transmuted into a more traditional masochistic configuration. Greven also considers the ambiguous racial and sexual identity of Vin Diesel as represented in films such as Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. Greven argues that a distinction can be drawn between the earlier films in which Vin Diesel appears as a “queer narcissist” and the later ones in which he becomes a “normative masochist” (10).

In one of the most striking chapters of the book Greven examines the role of the androgynous devil in The Passion of the Christ. Greven claims that the representation of a link between homosexuality and the devil may be seen as a homophobic element which not only informs Mel Gibson's work but also extends to a wider Christian tradition. Nevertheless, Greven argues that this homophobic dimension ironically facilitates some of Gibson's most striking aesthetic innovations. The contextualization of the film within the tradition of the Hollywood biblical epic is also effective in terms of furthering an investigation into the representation of masculinity within religious discourse. The link between genre and masculinity is explored further in Greven's final chapter, on Brokeback Mountain, in which he investigates how the Western genre is reenvisioned in order to interrogate the concepts of queer identity and “a straight male narcissistic subjectivity” (11). Greven's study succeeds in providing a thought-provoking analysis which should be very helpful to scholars of queer theory and Hollywood film.