For a bit of background info for you all, I'm not generally a big movie buff - sport is obviously my major thing, but it just so happens we're about 3/4 of the way through a 2 week period of the year where I become a movie geek rather than a sports geek, thanks to the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) which is in its final days for 2013. If you're looking for an alternative to your major Hollywood blockbuster, or interested in seeing a different side of the movie genre, MIFF would be well worth a look - be it a lost classic, an International film, an independent movie from an up & comer filmmaker, a Night Shift classic late night cult film, a Documentary, or of course a Homegrown Aussie film getting its first ever release, MIFF has lots to offer. So it is the highlight so far from MIFF 2013 which is the the 1st cab off the rank for a movie review.!
REWIND THIS!
USA, 91 min
Dir: J.Johnson
If you're a fellow Gen X'er like myself, then you'll have grown up with the humble home video cassette. Sure today, we have Blu Ray, VOD, Netflix, etc but back when our generation was growing up, it was all about this brand new concept that allowed us to first watch movies at home, known as a VHS. Rewind This is a really interesting, very funny, & poignant documentary that takes us back for a look at the video cassette - from its beginnings, right through until its demise due to the DVD.
We hear from movie geeks still devoted to the VHS genre (& we're talking some SERIOUS geeks still with literally wall to wall VHS movie collections), archivists & various filmmakers themselves as they discuss how they see how the video cassette changed their lives, & dominated the movie media market for the 80's & most of the 90's. We look at the uprising of video stores across the land, & how Hollywood blockbusters could sit side-by-side on the shelf with cheesy direct-to-video releases. We even briefly delve into how this changed the adult film business, & how the landscape in Japan was also changing rapidly. We get a heap of clips from a bunch of so-bad-its-good horror & cheesy movies from the era & that had the audience in fitfuls of laughter. The film looks at the making of a home movie thanks to the video camera, & we witness the lengths that some everyday people went to in their quest for making a film - to the extent of recreating Raiders Of The Lost Ark in its entirety - now that's dedication!
Rewind This! wraps up with a look back at all involved in the documentary on how they see the positioning of the VHS in the modern era. The true value of nostalgia is not lost upon most fanatics & collectors, to the extent where video cassette conventions around the world are gathering storm, proving there is still a strong fan base for this part of film media. There is also a belief in physical media possession, which flies in the face of the way the industry is headed today - e.g. Netflix, YouTube.
Obviously I'm right in the target audience for a feature documentary like Rewind This! Hey, I can still admit I have a VCR in my room still too! But a person of just about any age would find some value in this film. Even if its for the classic clips from movies you never though could possibly have existed back in the 80's! It is a well constructed & very well put together piece, giving you a decent history lesson, & an insight to what the genre still means to many dedicated VHS fans out there, to throwing in plenty of laughs along the way, Rewind This! is a really great feature, & well worth checking out. Look for it on VHS at your local video store, haha! :) I'm giving it ****
