This book is. on the one hand, or one face, a survey of contemporary American film from 1990 to 2002. The Solaris Effect contains substantial descriptions of about sixty films. These descriptions ought to stand on their own, as probes and forays into a fascinating decade of cinema. There is still relatively little critical work on directors such as Steven Soderbergh, Darren Aronofsky, Todd Haynes. Harmony Korine. and Gus Van Sant. This book treats Soderbergh and Aronofsky at length, and tends to emphasize small-budget independent American film at the expense of blockbuster Hollywood film. Yet more canonical figures like Martin Scorsese. Robert Altman. and Steven Spielberg also make detailed appearances. One way to read The Solaris Effect is as a modest supplement to Robert Kolker's Cinema of Loneliness} Kolker surveys major figures (Kubrick. Spielberg. Scorsese. Stone) in a nearly definitive manner, but omits anyone not admitted to his limited pantheon. For instance, Kolker does not even mention David Lynch.