Jessica Loudis

While the word “Katrina” is rarely, if ever, mentioned in Today, the storm’s fallout is so deeply embedded in the lives of the protagonists that it hardly merits reference.

Unlike other Israeli writers of his generation, Keret’s writing tends to avoid religion or politics, allowing him sidestep the country’s historical hang-ups while investigating the kinds of weird subjective experiences that tend to push people towards God or government in the first place.

The ads, which are plastered all over downtown Manhattan, feature large block text paired with images of people doing defiantly stupid things. In addition to angering elephants, Dieselites start bonfires on beaches, don traffic cones as hats, and have an inexplicable proclivity for mooning cameras. Accompanying text boldly celebrates the cult of stupid with cryptic, tautological phrases: “You can’t outsmart stupid,” “smart had one good idea and that idea was stupid,” and of course, the eponymous urging: “Be stupid.” (If French Connection is any indication, a line of “Be Stupid” t-shirts would be a big hit among wealthy Euro-hipsters). True to form, slogans require that viewers don’t think too hard, instead channeling the energy of a drunken frat boy rallying a crowd before leaping off a roof.

Ultimately, though, TF/LN succeeds in a far more important regard—by publishing writing that’s highly intelligent and equally entertaining. Sidestepping punchy headlines and stale ledes (a typical headline is “They Came to See Who Came”) the writers are given space to wander across subject and genres, and usually to the reader’s benefit. In this sense, the real success of the project isn’t in staging the birth and death of a newspaper (there’s no shortage of that these days) but in reminding readers how content should carry a publication beyond its form.

The film opens on a barely visible night shot of a tree, with static hanging in the background. After a moment, the static gives way to radio tuning, and the viewer is lifted out of the scene and dropped into the Technicolor landscapes of an 80s video game. The music gains coherence, and stills from the games are punctuated by flashing screenshots to a hypnotic, hallucinogenic effect.