Although it’s supposed to be an examination of why a well-defined canon is necessary in the academic study of film, it’s really a collection of film essays disguised as a reference book, which would probably bother a lot of people. But I’m a big film nerd, so I liked it. It’s not an easy read, but paging through a few essays a night made it bearable; Rosenbaum has a lot of opinions on film, and although I don’t necessarily agree with all of them he’s much more knowledgeable and well-read than I am, so I can’t really argue too much. Some of the most interesting essays were about a filmmakers that I’d never heard about before, and they made me want to seek out their work. Not bad.