Eraserhead

If you’re going to watch David Lynch’s Eraserhead at some point in your life (and you really should), see it at the River Oaks Theatre today. Though the eccentric director begrudgingly releases his films for home viewing, he insists they are best viewed in a single sitting, with your undivided attention, on a 30-foot-by-70-foot screen. It’s not just a case of finicky prima donna-ism. Eraserhead, like all of Lynch’s work, includes extreme detail in its surreal landscape. For the 1977 film, set in an industrial wasteland and centered on a daydreaming man trapped in his apartment with a mutant-like infant (rumor is Lynch used a cow fetus for the puppet), Lynch did all the makeup and set designs himself (even stenciling his own floor tiles), filled the audio background with just enough weird hiss, and shot and reshot every scene over the span of five years. He earned your full attention, and that’s why a trip to the River Oaks, not to Blockbuster, is in order. 11:55 p.m. today and tomorrow. 2009 West Gray. For information, call 713-866-8881 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com. $8.25.
Fri., Nov. 30, 11:55 p.m.; Sat., Dec. 1, 11:55 p.m., 2007