Ideas

EX-LIBRIS: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY (B) - Toggling between dull and fascinating, the latest fly-on-the-wall epic from legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman is a three-plus-hour insider's examination of the grand and the mundane of New York's public library system.

The endless board meetings -- mostly about the financial future of the library system -- should be skipped, and the rest can be hit and miss. (I'm glad I saw it on DVD, not in the theater.) But Wiseman seems to be sending a simple, radical message: facts still matter; the truth still matters; ideas and diversity are our lifeblood. Brilliant minds can still draw an audience; ordinary folks can still change others' lives, often simply by volunteering their time. It's the power of the local community, far away from the politics of Washington and beyond.

We watch, nearly hypnotized, at trivial tasks -- the sorting of photos, books returning on a conveyor belt, patrons scrolling through page after page of microfiche. It's numbing but fascinating when taken as a whole. (Even if you watch it in 2 or 3 sittings.) Some of the recorded presentations flop (an overlong overview of the history of Jews in New York) and others are profound, including a hip-hop slam poet spieling a powerful rant about manhood. It is at that latter moment that Wiseman's genius -- for recognizing other forms of genius -- shines through.

BONUS TRACKS

Elvis Costello, promoting his memoir at a library event, offers a full-throated defense of his anti-Thatcher screed "Tramp the Dirt Down":



Costello introduced this wacky video featuring father, Ross McManus, and band cavorting through "If I Had a Hammer," and Wiseman's camera captures Costello's arched eyebrow as he sips from a glass of water -- a scene you can only get from "Ex Libris":



Here, Costello recounts his father's band of the '50s and '60s in England: