An obvious companion piece to my Vinyl watch yesterday. Both of these docs are odysseys of sorts into the world of obsessives, specifically obsessives for antiquated media consumption which has consumed their lives to an unhealthy extent. While Vinyl is told through the lens of someone just as invested in this realm as his subjects, Cinemania adopts a more traditional documentary form as it follows a cast of five New Yorkers whose lives are planned around attending at least one or two screenings a day. They share strong opinions on projection, on film selection, on the home video market. One of them even apparently choked a theatre worker for ripping up their ticket stub. And yet for all its discomfort there's something about this crew that reads a bit more optimistically than their Vinyl counterparts. Yes their lifestyle being so defined by repertory houses is clearly at the expense of healthy living but they find companionship among each other and other buffs living vicariously through the screen. At one point, they even mull the idea of living normally and scoff at it as ridiculous. Maybe it's because their pursuit reads closer to home for me but I found myself endeared to this band of outsiders, this crew prowling their way from Film Forum to MOMA to Japan Society to Lincoln Center all to spend a couple of hours in a dark room with strangers getting lost in the flickering light. It sure as hell makes me feel better about my own watching habits.
An obvious companion piece to my Vinyl watch yesterday. Both of these docs are odysseys of sorts into the world of obsessives, specifically obsessives for antiquated media consumption which has consumed their lives to an unhealthy extent. While Vinyl is told through the lens of someone just as invested in this realm as his subjects, Cinemania adopts a more traditional documentary form as it follows a cast of five New Yorkers whose lives are planned around attending at least one or two screenings a day. They share strong opinions on projection, on film selection, on the home video market. One of them even apparently choked a theatre worker for ripping up their ticket stub. And yet for all its discomfort there's something about this crew that reads a bit more optimistically than their Vinyl counterparts. Yes their lifestyle being so defined by repertory houses is clearly at the expense of healthy living but they find companionship among each other and other buffs living vicariously through the screen. At one point, they even mull the idea of living normally and scoff at it as ridiculous. Maybe it's because their pursuit reads closer to home for me but I found myself endeared to this band of outsiders, this crew prowling their way from Film Forum to MOMA to Japan Society to Lincoln Center all to spend a couple of hours in a dark room with strangers getting lost in the flickering light. It sure as hell makes me feel better about my own watching habits.
