Author Topic: THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER - really weird Gen X nostalgia  (Read 557 times)

Offline perc2100

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THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER - really weird Gen X nostalgia
« on: March 22, 2021, 06:52:42 PM »
THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER holds a kind of special place in my heart.  As a movie nerd, I do have quite a few memories of discovering great films (and great trashy/bad films) in libraries, rep theaters, and video stores as a little kid.  I vividly remember the days in the early 1980's when my parents, a bit too poor back then to afford a VCR, would check out a VCR for the weekend and bring home a ton of movies from the library.  A little later, when VCR's became affordable and my mom got a better job, I remember riding my bike to a local video store, or going on a Friday evening with my parents, to check out the latest cool movie I missed in theaters.  As I got older, video stores became like churches: holy grounds for me to discover an entire world of majesty, excitement, and often horror & mayhem.  The first job I had that I actually liked came when I was a HS upperclassman and (finally!) landed a job at my local video store with several of my hard corps movie nerd friends: a job I held until after I got engaged when I was in college.

The one caveat in regards to this explicit film: none of the experiences really involved a Blockbuster Video store.

I worked at a mom & pop store, and in HS & college I frequented the 'underground' stores that dealt mostly with foreign films, independents, exploitation, etc.  I would watch all the big and medium-sized films at the store I worked at (for free), and then rent, say, RASHOMON or MEET THE FEEBLES or the laser disc of SONGS OF THE SOUTH from the cool underground video stores on my local (Ohio State) college campus.  I actually loathed Blockbuster Video: I never thought the staff members at my local stores knew much about movies outside of the hits (though you know the old teenage axiom of "I'm obviously way cooler than most others" so I was pretty dang full of myself), they never had the Indies or hard-to-find films, never foreign films, and if a film was unrated or (gasp!) X/NC-17 film (like THE BAD LIEUTENANT, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, CRASH, FRANKENHOOKER, KIDS, etc) Blockbuster would refuse to carry it - they would force films to release an R-rated cut if they wanted to be in their store (as what happened to REQUIEM FOR A DREAM).

So THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER is indeed about what the title suggests: in Bend, OR the last remaining Blockbuster Video store is still open for business.  The film is kinda of MC'ed by Kevin Smith, and features actress Ione Skye (from ...SAY ANYTHING among others), actor Brian Posehn, Doug Benson (who voiced Bane in the Lego Batman Movie), actor/writer Paul Scheer, actor Samm Levine (from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS & "Freaks & Geeks"), actor Jamie Kennedy (Randy from SCREAM) and others who all talk about their fondness for going to Blockbuster video.  The film mixes nostalgia for the days of yor where folks had to travel to a brick & mortar building to rent one VHS or DVD movie for a couple of bucks each, and then return it after a few days (or incur the dreaded late fees) w/chronicling the life of the general manager of the last Blockbuster in business: one that's survived the market crash of 08/09, streaming, etc. and is still going strong even through the pandemic.

It's a fun film, less than 90 minutes, and any Gen X'er movie fan will likely have some amount of fondness for.  For me, if one takes out "Blockbuster" when talking about the fun and wonder of going to a video store, I'm right in that camp.  The stories from our low-level celebrities often tracked with my own experiences, and it's somewhat amazing to see Sani, the manager, talk about her life running a video store in 2019/2020.  Paul Scheer worked at a Blockbuster in HS, and some of his stories of shenanigans were 100% in line with stuff we used to do at the place I worked at.  This film is a fun way to stroll down memory lane for 85+ minutes, though it was one in a string of recent things that has reminded me I am indeed getting old.  THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER begins with a segment about "why the heck did video rental stores exist anyway?!" that seemed crazy to think is necessary before realizing generations prior may not realize from the late 1980's-early 2000's before Netflix made its move, video rental stores were indeed a great way to spend time wandering up and down aisles: studying video box art (a legit lost art, IMO), discovering new movies, talking to strangers about film, etc.  For me, from middle school-early HS I would ask the video store clerk about the gnarliest horror films and 'test' my endurance as I watched the bloodiest, most horrific films the stores had to offer; when I ran out of the classics in the store, I found great Italian and French and German horror films at other places to thrill me.  Sitting through those and discussing them at the school playground was a rite of passage for me, and many friends I met talking about those films I still have decades later (several of whom work in the film industry) 
This was all back before/in the early days of the internet where the in-person community experience  was all there was.

THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER isn't a doc that sheds like on a vital social topic, or is a reminder of a horrifying event from the past.  But it is a nice way for us not-quite-old-but-getting-there folks to remember the old days, where "binging a series" mean "I rented FRIDAY THE 13TH 1-6 one weekend in the late 1980's.

THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER is currently available to watch on Netflix