Out of Print (2014)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
This here is an extremely entertaining documentary that takes a look at revival cinema and why 35mm prints are so important. The main focus of this documentary is the New Beverly Cinema in California, which has become a cult favorite since they show double features on 35mm.
John Landis, Kevin Smith, Seth Green, Patton Oswalt, Edgar Wright, Richard Kelly, Stuart Gordon, Lloyd Kaufman, Clu Gulager, Joe Dante, Fred Dekker and Tom Holland, are among the people who are interviewed as well as people who work at the theater as well as those who religiously attend it week after week.
There's one thing for certain, if you're a film buff then you'll certainly want to visit the New Beverly Cinema after watching this movie. This documentary does a brilliant job at selling this theater and explaining why it is so popular to film buffs who want to enjoy these old classics and not-so-classic movies on the big screen. The second portion of the documentary talks about the importance of 35mm film and why it is slowly going away in favor of digital files. From here we also hear more about the theater including the various famous faces who go there and show off their favorite movies.
OUT OF PRINT is certainly a highly entertaining film and it's one that any film buff is going to love. The documentary does a masterful job at getting to the bottom of why people love movies as much as they do and this theater is basically shown as a Heaven for film buffs. I really liked the various stories told and especially since I've never been to this place.
The one thing the film doesn't really hit upon is how 35mm prints simply can't be shipped all over the country. It's brought up many times that this theater isn't making a great amount of money and I'm going to guess that the majority of prints shown there are from L.A. so there's not too much of a cost. Getting prints shipped to countless theaters across the country with dwindling crowd numbers is why so many have gone over to digital. With that said, more and more mainstream theaters are showing classic films on the big screen and this here wasn't happening when there were only 35mm prints going around.
