OUT OF PRINT (USA 2016)
Directed by Julia Marchese

Review by Gilbert Seah

OUT OF PRINT celebrates the repertory cinema. This is a film that older cineastes can relate to as repertory cinemas were common back in the days. Now with film streaming, VOD and DVDs, the repertory cinema is a dying breed. For myself, my love for movies grew with the rep cinema 10 minutes walk from my home in Singapore. The program changes every day, which allowed me to see a lot of films while around the age of 12, when not allowed to take the bus alone to go to the city centre. Also, immigrating to Toronto, the festival rep cinemas allowed me to catch up on all the oldies, foreign films and classics that I was unable to see in Singapore. And the price was always right.

At the start of the film, director Kevin Smith (DOGMA, CLERKS) says that if you can watch a film on your phone, then you should not be watching this film. Quite so true.

OUT OF PRINT concentrates on just one such cinema that exists in L.A. called the New Beverly.

OUT OF PRINT is a doc that, despite the fact that I really wanted to like it, does not do much. It picks on a couple of topics. Topics like the advantages of watching a movie in a theatre with a full house compared to alone in a house; the dedication of the New Beverly staff; the eccentricity of projectionists and the history of the owners are examined. Cameos from famous actors and directors like John Landis, Kevin Smith, Clu Galager, Seth Green, Rian Johnson, Edgar Wright are then given a few sentences to speak on each topic. The reactions are sometime repeated. But nothing new is learnt or insight given regarding the subject, unless one has been living in a cave for the past few years. The only time the film gets interesting is when it goes into the mechanics of how an image is projected on the big screen using the projector. Other than that, it is the rep staff praising themselves or the talking heads trying to be smart or funny. Unfortunately they are not that smart nor funny.

The film finally delves into something more current – the arrival of digital cinema. But Marchese ends up turning the subject into sentimental nostalgia.

It is only during the last 20 minutes that the film compares other rep cinemas around the U.S. and outside the U.S. Director Marchsese spends quite a bit of time on the Prince Charles in Cinema at Leceister Square, London. I remember watching films there for 1.99 quid. Ironically I saw Richard Kelly’s (one of the directors spotlighted in this doc) DONNIE DARKO there.

Despite the impressive list of cameos, OUT OF PRINT becomes tedious quite fast. Nothing is also sad of what the New Beverly is at the present time. The last thing said in the film was that it bought over by Quentin Tarrantino. It is also surprising Tarrantini was not interviewed for this film.