Film director Paul Bartel enjoyed flouting the expectations of audiences and critics with his amusing movies about murder, greed and transgressive sex. Strange stories that aroused laughter, he felt, carried the potential to disorient viewers and problematize their beliefs about American culture and its values. Among his best-remembered features are Death Race 2000 (1975), Eating Raoul (1982) and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989).

The first book-length study of its sort, The Life and Films of Paul Bartel provides readers with a detailed biography tracing Bartel's emergence as an independent low-budget auteur whose work aroused admiration from figures like Steven Spielberg, Jim Jarmusch and Brian De Palma. It considers the manner in which his experience as a gay man motivated him to introduce subversive subject matter into his work, too.

Readers will also find interviews with several people who knew Bartel, including Roger Corman, Joe Dante and John Waters, and critical material that considers the thematic and technical aspects of each film.