Honestly, it doesn’t seem like enough time has passed for us all to be so desperately nostalgic for the time of Blockbuster Video, or to the connoisseur, a local mom & pop video store. In truth it’s been over a decade, which has proven to be about the window for nostalgia to kick in. I thought, when I started the new documentary Kim’s Video that a love letter to video store sub-culture is what I was in for. I was right, and I was WAY wrong.
If there is one place that can be seen as the Mecca of the video store, it’s NYC. During the 90’s heyday you could find any film you wanted, released officially or otherwise, in a Manhattan video store if you new where to look. Some of them took on underworld qualities, dark corners, shady perpetually smoking cashiers, back rooms, etc. If you wanted a copy of the original cut of Star Wars, or the directors cut of Blade Runner some 20 years before it would become officially available, this is where you went. This is also, as Kim’s Video quickly informs us, the type of place that founder Young Kim built as his little 7 franchise NYC empire of cinema. Boasting a library of 55k videos at his largest location Kim’s Video stores were well known as the place to go to get what Blockbuster would never have. So much so that he was raided by the FBI on more then one occasion. The film itself aims to tell the story of what became of that massive library, taking viewers on a twisting tale starting in the dark alleys of NYC and going all the way to Salemi, Sicily thanks to the Mayor of the tiny Italian mob center who thought he could give the collection new life.
If you were a little taken by the twist there at the end, you’ve come upon my biggest issue with the film. I can absolutely see how, on paper, the interesting story was in what happened after the doors closed…I mean a globetrotting mob-adjacent quest to find a lost trove of tapes? Sounds amazing! Sadly the truth, at least how it was portrayed in the film, was more scattered brained then anything else. An ADHD trip through this small bit of film history is probably the best way to describe it. Of course, there is a slightly more aggressive take on the film…that it’s an egocentric outlet for an outlet to make mountains out of molehills. David Redmon, co-director and narrator…and for all intents and purposes our protagonist (which may be part of the problem) has no problem making this story all about him.
It doesn’t take long before Redmond’s central position in the story becomes apparent, the film quickly goes from “What happened to Kim’s VHS collection?” to “Watch David Redmond uncover the secrets of Kim’s lost video collection”. A slight distinction to be sure, but one that does make a difference. Maybe it’s the intercut film clips, which seem to prop up what’s occurring in the doc to a level where the comparison is undeserved, nothing in this film is worthy o s a Scorsese comparison, I assure you.
I’m trying to be rational about this, I’m sure a lot of my disappointment in the film has to do with what could have been. I honestly would have LOVED a deep dive into Kim’s Video in its heyday. I mean, honestly, between the counter-culture popularity and the FBI raids, it seemed that those lofty goals attributed to the search depicted could have been found while the story had its doors open. Those of us who grew up in the 80s will no doubt be drawn to this film, and honestly I’m not going to sit here and say don’t watch it, there’s enjoyment to be had…you just have to sit through some slodge to get to it.
