There are now THREE documentaries released in a two-year span by people who are working through their nostalgia for old video stores. If that subject interests you, check out the whole batch because each one is a little different (though Lloyd Kaufman and many full-sleeve tattoos appear in all of them). Adjust Your Tracking is about the VHS collector cult. Rewind This! is about the video boom of the 1980s and how independent film companies got in on the ground floor.
And now there’s VHS Massacre, which focuses on the present day and how independent filmmakers are dealing with the DEATH of video stores.
It’s a good topic. I’ve often wondered how the hell any independent movie makes more than $5 today. Once upon a time, an indie film company could keep their lights on if they could just get into a fraction of the twenty billion video stores around the USA. It’s a whole different story now where the only venues that matter are a handful of intensely corporate streaming services. And even if you do get on them, a new movie is just another one of thousands of little digital postage stamps on a screen. You lose most of the old-fashioned showmanship of the eye-catching video box. So, even then you still might not get seen. Or paid.
On a personal note, one thing I miss about video stores is how going out to them meant that you were on a MISSION. You wanted to see a movie and you were going to walk out of that store with one—or two or three—no matter what. Maybe they don’t have what you want. Maybe you’re indecisive. But you’re also getting tired. And hungry. And someone just walked into the store with a screaming baby. You’ve got to get out of there. So, you grab Leprechaun 3 just because you’re already in the “L” section.
Today, internet streaming is great. I use it, I abuse it. But I’m also no longer on those missions. I’m not Lee Marvin anymore. Now I’m an old fat woman, plopped on the couch, pressing buttons endlessly, wandering through my 900-movie queue on Netflix. More than once, I’ve actually fallen asleep in the middle of the search for a movie and not watched anything. And that doesn’t feel cool at all.
I like the new technology, but I also miss my rifle and combat boots. Maybe I’m an idiot (a strong possibility).
So, as of this writing, we’ve got three documentaries about video stores and three therapy sessions for mixed-up minds. Sit with me, why don’t ya?
Best moment in this one: John “Joe Bob Briggs” Bloom’s smart closing remarks about how movie history is full of seismic changes every five or ten years. He relates the present situation to the earliest days of cinema. He goes back to the 1800s. It’s hopeful and illuminating.
There are some clumsy moments in this documentary, but they score big by giving Joe Bob the last word.