Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

25 April 2008

Now Showing: Weekend of April 25

Other Weekends

Of the films opening in theaters this week, Deception is the latest high concept disappointment. More worthy of examination and discussion is the new film from Errol Morris, Standard Operating Procedure, which examines the infamous photographs taken at Abu Ghraib. It only opens on two screens, so we'll have our podcast discussion next week. The film is a valuable appendix to the other Iraq documentaries — notably Taxi to the Dark Side — but it's a series of footnotes instead of a clear argument, stirred together with questionable use of the scandal's iconography and an interview technique that builds up and tears down its subjects in equal measure, adding more mud to an already dark puddle.

See below for a list of films currently in theaters, conveniently organized with the cream at the top.

In Theaters

In preferential order:

Flight of the Red Balloon [trailer, review, my comments about the film on our NYFF podcast, an in-depth discussion of his work on an earlier podcast]
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [trailer]
The Visitor [trailer, review, brief thoughts on the Sundance podcast, and I'll revisit the film with J. Robert and the film's writer-director on a future podcast]
Persepolis [trailer, J. Robert's interview with the director on the podcast]
Be Kind Rewind [trailer, review]
Snow Angels [trailer, listen to my chat with Green on the podcast, see also: my review in the March Paste]
Funny Games [trailer, short review]

Also, Minor Films and Amusements

Married Life [trailer, review]
In Bruges [trailer, Sundance report]
The Counterfeiters [trailer, review]
The Ruins [trailer, review]
The Forbidden Kingdom [trailer, review]
The Other Boleyn Girl [trailer]
Stop-Loss [trailer, review]
NEW: Deception [trailer, review]

No, Thanks

Drillbit Taylor [trailer, review]
Vantage Point [trailer, review]
10,000 BC [trailer, review]
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed [trailer]

Where I'll Be This Week (Bay Area)

The 51st San Francisco International Film Festival will block out my week, but if you're looking for something else, check out Yojimbo at the SFMOMA. Clint Eastwood says it was the inspiration for Fistful of Dollars.

Posted by davis | Link | Other Weekends

Reader Comments

April 26, 2008, 03:51 AM

davis

One of the things that held my interest as I watched Deception was noticing how much of it resembles Eyes Wide Shut. E.g. the pent-up central character sent into a sexy underworld of beautiful anonymous women, some of whom seem threatened or even murdered when he tries to retrace his steps. But the differences are vast, something like the difference between 2001 and 2010. The difference between poetry and court records. Eyes Wide Shut is a dream world, and the one guy who doesn't talk like his brain is slightly swollen-- Sydney Pollack -- begins his explanations by saying, "What if I told you ..." thereby explaining nothing.

Deception, on the other hand, assumes that all we care about is a plot that Kubrick preferred to leave murky, filtered through the psychology of his character. Deception's characters have no psychology.

And this analogy is probably too hard on 2010, against which Deception pales.

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Favorite Films

In Theaters

Also, Minor Films and Amusements

No, Thanks

Where I'll Be This Week (Bay Area)