Out of Print
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or for home viewing, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
Feb. 26-27, 2017 – Oscar break.
Feb. 28, 2017 – Out of Print
I mentioned this in my post about White Heat, but if you live in Los Angeles and aren’t going to revival houses, you’re missing one of the whole points of being here. This is a town that celebrates cinema, the lives and breathes it, and as the old line goes, “film is forever”. So, if it’s forever, it should play forever, and the retro houses in Los Angeles like Cinefamily and the American Cinematheque series assure that, bringing you a classic movie somewhere in town every night of the week. The biggest, most consistent player in the L.A. revival house game with the most varied schedule is The New Beverly Cinema. Julia Marchese’s Out of Print is a love letter to that sacred movie house.
Marchese has thoroughly researched the cinema’s history (yes, it used to house porn) and she rounds up a geek’s wish list of film nuts to talk about The New Beverly (Kevin Smith! Joe Dante! Seth Green! Patton Oswalt! Rian Johnson!) to where you’re constantly entertained. Basically, she keeps her project from becoming a just-talking-heads feature, a bit of a plague with some retrospective docs.
I will admit that you’ll have to be into the topic at hand to be entirely down with this movie (then again, why are you watching it if you’re not?). I often forget, and am reminded when I visit other parts of the country, that everywhere I go people aren’t always talking about movies. Their loss, really. If you don’t love movies, why are we even talking?
Out of Print gets its title from the movie’s secondary purpose (and third act) – to celebrate and prolong the existence of 35mm film. We’re Movie Guys. It’s in our name. You don’t have to twist our arm to get behind this cause. It’s here where Marchese’s addition of New Beverly recurring filmgoers in the testimonials is a huge win. The fans speak, and it’s the most passionate talk in Out of Print. One particular point I love (brought home by a fan) is that watching 35mm prints is to look upon the original art form. In the same way people travel to France to see The Mona Lisa, when they could just look at a photo of it, seeing a digital print of a movie is to see a representation of the actual art piece, whose bones are in the celluloid.
Soon after Out of Print wrapped, The New Beverly Cinema was taken over by Quentin Tarantino…and a whole ‘nother movie could be made about the transition. For details on that, don’t miss Julia’s appearance on our PODCAST.
Directed by: Julia Marchese
Release Date: June 3, 2016
Run Time: 86 Minutes
Country: USA
Distributor: Level 33 Entertainment
