Andre Bazin – What is Cinema? Volume 1

One of the greats, Bazin's thesis on the relevance and progression of cinema evolves over the course of this collection of short pieces originally penned for a wealth of other publications. This collection, hand-picked by the late Bazin for the first volume, touches every base from extensive semiotic analysis to beefing against his cinema-as-art rivals. As essential for the faux cinema buff as the theoretician.

Anthony Lane – Nobody's Perfect

This compendium of Lane's New Yorker reviews is solid entertainment that covers a wide spectrum of films with integrity and humour. See reviews of Three Colours Blue and Speed 2 for the choicest cuts of Lane's mastery over the form and, subsequently, his audience. One of the original and best hardcopy bloggers.

Mark Jacobson - American Gangster and other tales of New York

Coinciding with the release of the film – inspired by Jacobson's original article featured here – this compilation of the journalist's work based in and around the city provides an awesome sense of place and snapshot of one of the world's most (in)famous cities. The twenty articles are peppered across three sections – Uptown, Downtown and All Around – and can't be faulted for their ability to engross as much as cover fresh ground with every page. The Frank Lucas story is the bombastic highlight but the main body of the work doesn't fail to endear as Jacobson gives his characters and places just the right space to shake and move with only the smallest hint of bias.

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