The Day the Video Store Died...

There was once a time where Friday and Saturday nights were movie night. Blockbusters, Hollywood Videos, and Movie Gallerys would be packed. There would be a full staff of 5 or 6 people working, and that still wouldn't be enough to handle the crowds. The video store was the place to go, and if you ever where unsure about what to rent, the staff was there to help you out with a suggestion. Now, the video store is becoming obsolete. There is no need for them with red box and with on demand you don't even have to leave your house. Great right? No late fees, no driving to return anything in a hurry before midnight, it is simple easy and convenient.  The question I asked myself is if this really is a good thing?

I worked at a video store for 6 years. It was my first and only job from 16-22. I loved it. I loved the people I worked with (my best friendships were formed here), the people that came in were always so much fun, and I was able to learn things about movies that I never would have had I not worked there. There is something that becomes lost with the red box and on demand: the human factor. 

Something that this world has become so afraid of anymore is actual human interaction. We don't ever have to talk face to face if we didn't want to. Our customers would come in and we would have actual conversations. We knew people by name, we knew things about their lives and their families. When people we would see on a regular basis didn't come in for awhile, we would become concerned. We talked face to face and nobody imploded. I like to think that sometimes we helped to make someone's day a little better. Don't get me wrong... there were those moments that made me want to smash my head through a window, and those people that just are looking for a fight, but that comes with human interaction. 

I really also think that the movie industry is suffering from the loss of the video store. No, I don't mean from a monetary standpoint, but from a creative standpoint. There were so many times that we would get a shipment of movies in and there were at least 3 or  4 smaller titled movies. I discovered so many indie films. I would watch them and suggest them to people. So many times people would come back and tell me how much they loved the movie and they would have never picked it up if I didn't suggest that. You don't get that from red box or on demand. I think that many indie films become lost and forgotten about now. Those smaller movies don't have a chance.

I guess what I am trying to say is that it does make me sad to think that one day there is not going to really be a need for a video store as I know them. What is so wrong with that little bit of human interaction? 

{500} Days of Summer... (the girl not the season)

I can't even tell you how hard it was for me to get my hands on this movie. I have been trying for the last month  to rent this movie or catch it on TV without any success. I was really excited to see what this movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Dechanel was all about, and it did not disappoint. I am a sucker for any more that starts out by telling me that it is not a love story. (Sometimes the sap happy just gets to be to much... *gag reflex*) This movie really set itself apart. It didn't do so by any original story line, but in the way Marc Webb (director), Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber (writers) were able to put onto the screen that all familiar roller coaster of love. Levitt has shown that he can definitely carry the action/suspense film and the light romantic comedy roles. 

Tom's relationship with Summer touches on all of those important relationship moments. The moment that you should have made a move but you didn't, the first time they grab your hand, that moment you realize that they could hurt you, that moment in which all in the world is aligned and you want to hug everyone because they should be as happy as you. It brings back all of those open wounds of the time you where dumped. It is the perfect embodiment of all relationships.
What I loved about the movie is that it is not told in complete chronological order.  It starts at the end of Summer and Tom's relationship and jumps around. This would normally make me feel like my head was spinning, but this was the perfect story telling technique for this film was trying to say. We see that Tom is so devastated by his break-up with Summer, and like most people he remembers all of those good times that they had together. The first half of the movie is so heavy in the happy moments that it is hard to understand how we end up at the unhappy beginning (well...ending). It is near the last half of the movie that Tom begins to take a closer look at some of the "happy moments" and see that maybe they really aren't all that happy. Isn't that what everyone does when a relationship ends? Especially when you are the one who was dumped? It becomes a what happened, we were so happy, it came out of no where... when really the signs were right in front of your face you just didn't want to admit it to yourself.

And the narrator was right, it wasn't a love story. I thought that the over all theme of the movie is that everything in life happens for a reason. (this is the thinking that gets me out of bed sometimes) Each person that comes into your life helps to move you to your next phase in life, and sometimes that person is not part of that next phase. They might not be your soul mate, but it doesn't make them any less important. So it may not be a love story, but it is a story worth watching for sure.