The Last Blockbuster

Blockbuster was once a video rental chain with more than nine thousand stores in America. Then companies posting films by mail appeared, streaming followed, and the chain collapsed. The documentary is about the one store left: a shop still open in Bend, Oregon, and Sandi Harding, the manager who runs it. Taylor Morden directs. It appeared in 2020. The best thing in it is how the store stays open. The tapes and the machines are no longer made; the manager finds spare parts second hand online and keeps the system going by her own means. The records still run on the old software. The second subject is the collapse of the chain. The documentary talks to former executives about how the company missed its chances to move online. The narrative leans on nostalgia and does not hide it; the film is a lament for the culture of the video shop. The town itself and the shop's customers take up considerable room; the store is shown less as a business than as a place where people meet. Who it is for: viewers who like nostalgic documentary and anyone curious about the culture of the eighties and nineties. Who it is not for: there is no critical depth, the structure is loose, and the narrative rests on a single feeling.