Critique de CHOICE

Hollywood Is Everywhere offers a scrupulously detailed sense of how transnational is Hollywood's product and, more specifically, how characteristically international are its directors. In the first three chapters, Behlil (Kadir Has Univ., Turkey) provides three panoramic descriptions--what generally does Hollywood filmmaking and distribution look like?--and follows these with three case studies: James Bond movies, "auto-remakes" by directors of their own "foreign" movies, and MTV advertising. Behlil responsibly adopts certain models of globalization (following, for example, Arjun Appadurai), but she does not aim to challenge them. Though the book concludes by referencing a political slogan--"Everywhere is resistance!"--the analysis of globalized cinema is descriptive throughout, not ideological. In chapter 2, "Cultural Work in a Globalizing World," Behlil writes that "the consumption and reception of Hollywood's products are very important issues, but they are not the subject of this book." As a (mostly non-ideological) description of networks and practices, the book works extremely well. By approaching her topic from various directions, Behlil makes her case that "Hollywood is not American," as she writes in the conclusion. A worthy successor to Global Hollywood 2, by Toby Miller et al. (2005), Hollywood Is Everywhere should be read alongside more recent books, such as Toby Miller and Marwan Kraidy's Global Media Studies (2016). Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Steven C. Dillon, Bates College