Joss Whedon

In his capricious Singing a New Tune: The Rebirth of the Modern Film Musical from "Evita" to "De-Lovely" and Beyond (Applause, $24.95), John Kenneth Muir places movie musicals in a context that goes all the way back to "The Jazz Singer," the first talkie, in 1927. A prolific chronicler of popular culture ( Horror Films of the 1970s , Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest, etc.), Muir rustles up a few smart aperçus about releases from the last decade — for example, his eye-opening analysis of how the movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" lampooned musical-comedy tropes.

But he undermines his credibility by largely ignoring the theatrical currents that shaped classic musicals. And he has other tics, such as constantly quoting Joss Whedon, creator of TV’s "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." No doubt Whedon is indeed a "virtual encyclopedia of musical film history," as Muir maintains; that hardly means one wants to know his opinion of "Oklahoma!" And then there are Muir’s bizarrely painstaking critiques of fly-by-night flicks like "Spice World" (remember Ginger, Scary, Sporty and Posh?) and the "American Idol" spin-off "From Justin to Kelly." Still, with movie versions of "Rent" and "The Producers" just out, Singing a New Tune scores points for timing.