"Laleen Jayamanne’s beautiful new book, Poetic Cinema and the Spirit of the Gift, enlivens the spirits of its readers every bit as much as the movies it discusses enliven both the spirits and the bodies of their viewers. The book’s scholarship is careful and rigorous, but also thoughtfully evocative, as it discusses a number of anomalously brilliant cinematic works."
- Steven Shaviro, Wayne State University, Senses of Cinema, Issue 99, July 2021

"Cinema and the Spirit of the Gift is itself an intellectual gift to cinephiles and film scholars. It will make an important contribution to the study of film aesthetics, and feminist film theory. I know of no other book quite like it."
- Kara Keeling, The University of Chicago

"This clearly is a book of passion written after years of teaching and writing about film. The entire book can be seen as an 'ode to Cinematography' written from an imaginal place. And since the spirit of the gift contains reciprocity, this book also offers something back by demonstrating what careful attention can make visible by writing about film."
- Patricia Pisters, The University of Amsterdam