in which I cheat to help a kid win a prize

Took my Fake Nephew to see an advance screening of Monster House. Gratified that, as opposed to most US ghost stories, it takes time for a little sadness amidst all the running around and screaming. The Nephew was on the edge of his seat for most of the picture, as were all the kids around me. It uses the Joe Dante template of kid summer action horror, but without any sort of political edge to it--although I loved the sign for a new housing project: "We've drained the lake!" Steve Buscemi does a wonderful Mean Old Man, and I appreciate where the movie took his character. The Nephew discussed with me afterwards why the House was so angry, and came to some useful conclusions. There were "prize packages" afterwards for kids who arrived in costume, so I took a catsup packet and squeezed it all over his face and he achieved the rest of his zombie costume through sheer acting ability. The prize package was hardly worth getting catsup smeared on me, though: a poster and a handful of candy.
Final shot: protagonists walk down the street, shot from above--followed by several gag shots of characters climbing out of the cellar of the monster house.

Later watched another Alan Clarke DVD: Elephant. I was worried before it began as I saw that one of the DVD extras was an interview with David Hare, perhaps the most overrated playwright of all time. His yappity-yap-yap style of Important Theatre would seem to play right into all the worst qualities of television drama. Luckily, he had nothing to do with this movie, and Elephant couldn't be further from a Hare play. It's a series of almost dialogue-free encounters between executioners and victims: one person moving, encounter, executioner moving away, hand-held close-up of corpse. You're never sure if you're initially following executioner or victim to begin with, and the sustained shots of the corpses, with almost imperceptible camera-movement, leave you as an unwilling witness no matter how you approach the scene. And every expectation is overturned with the final scene. The cinematography and use of natural sound is powerful--all these empty public spaces, barren factories and schools, like almost everyone is already dead. It's produced by Danny Boyle, and despite the fact that this is specifically about The Troubles, it could as easily be a chapter from 28 Days Later. An amazing film.
Final shot: still life, I guess.

Just finished listening to the Recorded Book of Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer, performed by Jeff Woodman and Scott Shina. This may be the best performance of a recorded book I've heard--they completely captured the voices of the two narrators. The book is powerful, and extremely clever, but I get the same sort of feeling from him as from Nellie McKay. He's a brilliant architect of words, but there's something in his concerns that paints him as very, very young. Which he is, and that's fine, but for this book (more than for McKay's songs) I wish he'd waited until he was a little older. There's a lack of subtlety, and a nonchalance about things that age would temper--and often I think he misses the importance of a particular scene. On the other hand, age tends to limit the willingness to go for the good jokes, and I appreciate a good joke more than anything, especially in work with a serious core.