Director: Alex Ross Perry
Writer: Alex Ross Perry
Stars: Maya Hawke
Synopsis: VHS’s 1980s rise transformed how people watched movies. Using diverse footage and Maya Hawke’s narration, Alex Ross Perry examines video stores’ crucial role in film culture.
We all know that nostalgia is a powerful force. Yes, it was mentioned in a long monologue in Mad Men, but that simply did a wonderful job of elucidating something that we already knew, somewhere deep down. There is proof all around us. How many movies and television shows get greenlit simply because they are either remakes or just remind us of something that we grew up with? Stranger Things, one of Netflix’s biggest success stories, certainly capitalizes on this idea. However, nostalgia without analysis never lasts. Even if it makes money in the moment, will you remember it years from now? Usually, the answer is no. The irony of one of Stranger Things’ stars, Maya Hawke, narrating a long form documentary on a mostly-dead system of accessing media is not lost on me.
Videoheaven, written and directed by Alex Ross Perry, having a busy year, paired with another off-kilter documentary, Pavements, has created a new level of passion project. This is essentially the story, the rise and brutal fall, of the video rental store. A lesser film would bring in “talking heads;” experts in video processing, Blockbuster executives, movie studio employees, and the like to discuss reasons why this happened. But Ross Perry seems completely disinterested in these typical ideas and this is to the credit of the filmmaker and helps Videoheaven be something more than a standard documentary. This is more akin to a video essay, but in a longer and better thought out format. He manages to use many different kinds of films, from blockbusters to nearly unseen direct-to-video movies to prove several important points. He details not only the history of the format, but more importantly, ways in which it was affected by its representations on the very thing that it celebrated, film. And sure, using the narrator’s father, Ethan Hawke as the introductory clip and including Stranger Things more than once rings slightly false. But these are minor quibbles that never truly take away from the stunning creation and editing from Clyde Folley.
And what better way to examine the path of the video store than through how it is depicted onscreen, straight into the homes of viewers? However, this is definitely one for the sickos. Given its runtime (3 hours, give or take), this is likely not a recommendation for a casual moviegoer. Also, this seems like a perfect movie to watch at home, given the subject material. For those of a certain age, like this reviewer, Videoheaven hits a particular sweet spot of that aforementioned nostalgia. Many people of that generation rank picking out a movie at a rental spot as a highlight of their week growing up. There was a joy and a simplicity in not only figuring out what to watch, but also in having actual limitations.
We have come a long way in the rental space, and Perry details this as an overall loss. Yes, we can pick almost literally anything we want and without even a trip down the street. In this film, there is a great deal of time spent discussing the social aspect, both regarding ingroup and outgroup. Included are the details of a family or a couple finding the right film for an evening and the idea of interacting in positive and negative ways with other people there or, god forbid, the store clerk. And once again, this is all accomplished through clips from actual films and perfectly paced and performed narration by Hawke.
There could be any number of documentaries made about lost artifacts, but this feels more important for those of us connected to film, even in ancillary ways. For instance, we don’t have payphones (mostly) anymore, but the idea of sitting through representations of phone booths on film for three hours feels tedious, at best. But this social aspect, this desire for connection, does make it feel like a real tragedy the further we get from it as a reality. Ross Perry taps into something that movie fanatics have felt, but struggled to speak to as the DVD revolution seemed to conquer the rental store.
And that, despite the weirdos (like yours truly) hanging on to physical media by any existing thread, this revolution is being buried by the streaming universe. We humans, many times, desire simplicity and eschew connection because solitude (or the people we live with) is honestly the path of least resistance. As Videoheaven shows us through clips from The Omega Man and I Am Legend, the next generation will not have these processes in a world gone bad. Everything is connected through the internet (if not through other humans) and there is a loss of tangible objects to connect through.
Nostalgia, in this case, has a sell by date. Those of us around now are the last generation that experienced physical movie rental en masse. As the film mentions, the next set of films that reference these spaces (if they even do) will be made by filmmakers that never experienced it firsthand. It will be interesting to see how this changes their reputation, but the loss of this space can never be undone. For young (and old) cinephiles, this space was one of discovery and learning, a place to find something eye-opening that we never knew existed. Our knowledge was limited to our connection with others and recommendations. Now, we have no limits and are simultaneously more limited due to the paradox of choice. But for three small hours, Alex Ross Perry invites us to that small slice of heaven resting in our pasts and our memories.