Your aesthetic affiliation is Formalism. Try some Peter Greenaway to revive your jaded palate. Not fluffy; I've worked in film for >a decade and other branches of the arts for about as long, and wallow deeply in aesthetic theory. Greenaway trained as a painter before getting into film and it shows.

Much that is written on film theory is a doomed attempt to reconcile aesthetic practice to Marx, Freud or other critical thinkers, but you may enjoy the Lacanian musings of Slavoj Zizek or Joan Copjec, especially this anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Shades-Noir-Haymarket-Joan-Copjec/dp/...