Controversial films, those that involve the stage between the private feeling of offense and the legal machinations of censorship, a stage marked by performances of offense and opposition, are important as a cultural barometer of pressures surrounding such issues as sex, race, or violence, argues Phillips (communication and rhetorical studies, Syracuse U.), who develops this idea in order to examine controversies of: sex, gender, and sexuality sparked by Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs; violence and crime connected to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers; race and ethnicity connected to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing; and religion surrounding Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)