Vinyl

Finally caught the documentary about insaneo record collectors, which since I am an insaneo record collector myself is of interest. There's lots of hilarious stuff, like the guy who is trying to get every record ever made in 'the world' but never thought of, like, Asia; or how about cinema-theorist-for-hire Geoff Pevere admitting that he threw 2000 records in a dumpster because he couldn't stand the thought of anyone else owning them. There's also lots of confrontational stuff where Zwieg, quite reasonably, tries to get these people to face up to what idiots they are being. A couple of them get very far out. But whatever's going along up top, way back in the distance somewhere you can hear this droning 80s infomercial music which I guess is supposed to be the movie's soundtrack. In a movie at least tangentially about music, is this some kind of bizarre attempt at irony? Docked a notch for that lazy sh*t.

Pretty damned near brilliant. Director Zweig interviews, nay - psycho-analyzes, and CROSS-EXAMINES - record collectors in an effort to understand the roots of his own obsessiveness, loneliness and feelings of self-loathing. Among the collectors he's interviews are Harvey Pekar, Guy Madden and Bruce La Bruce, though nobody is identified in the film. Make no mistake, some of the collectors put under his microscope are quite sick, more hoarders than collectors, allowing their obsessions to paint their lives into a frighteningly cluttered corner. Though - as a collector myself - it could be rather painful to watch at times, and though the directors soul-searching occasionally wanders a bit too far, this is really a MUST SEE for any collector!

Why do people always tell you what they wish a film had been or what they would have done or what there should have been more of or less of? "There should have been more audiophiles". "There should have been less of the filmmaker". "It would have been better if my uncle was in it". etc etc blah blah blah. Me and my friends love this movie and we rent it whenever we can find it. I think the reason some people don't get it is because they want it to be ONLY about record collecting and while it is about that, it's about a lot more too. I'm not a record collector myself, although some of my friends are and I wouldn't have wanted it to be some celebration of record collecting. If you want a movie about audiophiles, make it yourself. Skimming through the reviews on IMDb, it seems like the most vocal reviewers are usually the ones who have the most complaints. And sometimes those complaints are entertaining but it shouldn't give you the wrong impression of this very unique and very cool flick. Oh and by the way, one of my friends told me that reviewer "Ivan Haffenden" is actually in the movie and so his comments should be ignored more than most.

Like Harvey Pekar, but wish he was more of a whiny, uninteresting looser? The real Harvey Pekar is in this film for comparison, so you can see for yourself.

The subjects being interviewed would have been far more interesting in the hands of an interviewer with some empathy, and who didn't have the same obsession. As it is, he lacks the necessary distance from the subject to provide a decent overview. There is definitely a documentary to be made about this subject, but for the most part this film could be used by someone else as a template for how not to make that documentary.

Several points taken away for a breathtakingly cringe-worthy "girlfriend interview" and end titles that sacrifice readability for "style".

This is an odd film made by a local Toronto filmmaker who interviewed record collectors in their homes and in their favourite haunt--the record store. For those who enjoyed High Fidelity and thought that Nick Hornsby's novel was a rip off of their life story, wait until you see this one! The director's thesis is that record collectors are obsessive compulsive and are using this pursuit to make up for something that is inherently missing from their lives.

This is a very entertaining film. I'm not a record collector but one of my friends was featured in the film. I went on a lark and left feeling like I had voyeuristically ventured into someone's dusty garage.