Via The Onion–a Documentary on a “Historic” Blockbuster.
Historic Blockbuster Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past
Years ago I, like many teenagers, worked in a local video store (Video Monde, in Larkspur, California) and while the Onion gets most of this right, they forgot to include the most common, most subjective, and most annoying customer question:
“What’s new, that’s good, that’s in?”
They also forgot this—which is pretty spot on.
If only my experience as rental store employee had been more like Be Kind Rewind–an absolute gem of a film about the threat of destroying what’s precious in favor of commercialization & gentrification — and the saving grace of creativity, community and play.*
Be Kind Rewind is charming and fun, but it’s also about the power of creating your own history (as with Cheryl Dunye’s wonderful, Watermelon Woman–another story about someone working in a video store, and the inspiration it provided.)
I do love the convenience of On Demand, iTunes et al. And video stores may soon be obsolete. But consider this: Would Tarantino be Tarantino if he had grown up with Netflix?
Praise Be to Seattle’s Scarecrow Video. Let’s hope they keep on rewinding.
*On a side note, my Sweded movie would have to be either Night of the Comet–one of Joss Whedon’s inspirations for Buffy the Vampire Slayer–or Hot Fuzz–arguably already a Sweded movie, but with a budget.
(Thanks to Rail Studio for “Sweding” these DVD covers for me.)