Films can mean so much to so many. There is always something new to glean from a film and no two viewings of a film are alike. Different viewers possess different life experiences, which may affect their viewing or interpretation of a film. Moreover, even the same viewer can revisit a film at different moments in their life and also experience the film in a new way.

What Film is Good For: On the Values of Spectatorship is a compilation of essays edited by Julian Hanich and Martin P. Rossouw, which discusses the moviegoing experience through one core question: Is film actually good for anything? The compiled responses to this question are derived from scholars, critics, filmmakers, and more to conclude that film is indeed invaluable.

What Film is Good For: On the Values of Spectatorship is available for purchase via the University of California Press.