Friday, April 5, 2024

Kim's Video (2023)


Only fleetingly touching on the life and times of the original Kim's Video stores in New York, This is actually film about the effort to bring the videos back from Sicily where they were supposed to be the corner stone of a cultural and artistic village.(And it's a look at corruption in Italian politics)

Back in the day the Kim's stores were a cultural lynch pin of cinephiles in NYC. You could pretty much get any film there legally or illegally. However digital and streaming caused the chain to collapse. There is a hell of a story there involving how it entertained its customers and created a generation of filmmakers. Directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin flush that tale for a self serving one about Redmon trying to liberate the video tapes.

It's a ten minute tale stretched to 84. Filled with not so clever references to directors and films its never made clear why this is so important. Yes to preserve some of the films but The VHS tapes are old technology and many have been released in other formats. We never really get to know Redmon so we don't know why he's bothering. It's just something he's doing because he's obsessive but frankly that isn't enough. 

While I wanted to know how the story came out I desperately wanted to just hit the fast forward.

I honestly have no idea what your reaction is going to be but ultimately I felt like this was a shaggy dog tale that wasted an evening.

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