Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.
Vernon, Florida is quintessential early Errol Morris — a deadpan, hypnotic portrait of small-town American eccentricity that feels utterly singular. The film has almost no conventional plot structure, just a series of monologues and vignettes from genuinely strange, endearing locals, which makes it low on narrative but high on atmosphere. The cinematography is intimate and observational without being flashy — competent and fitting but not visually dazzling. Acting is moot in a documentary sense, but the subjects themselves are mesmerizing natural performers. The ending drifts off without resolution, feeling less like a deliberate formal choice and more like Morris simply ran out of material. The novelty, however, is exceptional — few documentaries achieve this level of deadpan, anthropological strangeness with such economy and wit. It's unmistakably a Morris film and unlike almost anything else in documentary cinema.