Alison Macor

With fascinating backstories on movies from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Spy Kids, here is a rollicking history of moviemaking in America’s independent film mecca.

This lively biography of the screenwriter of 1980s hit movies Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, Beetlejuice, and Batman illuminates issues of film authorship that have become even more contested in the era of blockbuster filmmaking.

How a Hollywood gem transformed the national discourse on post-traumatic stress disorder.