Embracing Entropy

HERE’S A TENDENCY AMONG RECENT DOCUMENTARIES to start with what’s effectively an embedded trailer: two minutes of montage, scored to urgent music, tantalizing the audience with what’s to come. Instead of an introductory scene, or credit sequence, or a cold open, the beginning of the movie is really just hard-sell marketing for the rest of the movie. The practice is familiar—so much so that many of these beginnings are beat-by-beat identical—but I remain dismayed that a work of art would apportion itself this way. The tendency speaks from a place of fear and insecurity (doubtlessly heightened in this era of fickle streaming habits) over whether the viewer will continue watching. The fear may be real, but need that fear shape or, in a limited sense, become the work itself? It’s like putting the book-jacket copy onto