By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Brendan Toller
Country: united_states
Year: 2009
Running time: 78
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1274725/
Michael says: “I NEED THAT RECORD – Record stores were a big part of my growing up and coming of age. I even managed one (albeit part of an evil chain) for several years. So Brendan Toller’s documentary, I NEED THAT RECORD, about the recent demise of the independent record store seemed like a sure-fire winner for me. And while the subject was a good one, and some of the people Brendan interviewed for the film were interesting, there is little about this doc that really stands out. It’s fairly disjointed and despite the unifying theme, there isn’t a whole lot tying the narrative together. There’s also a fairly limited number of outlets that Toller explores, perhaps due to a pretty low budget?
“I NEED THAT RECORD finds a lot of people for whom the record store became more of a community where visitors could express themselves, discover new music, and make friends. Toller interviews a series of record store owners (mostly former owners) as well as some notables such as Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, the Patti Smith Group’s Lenny Kaye, and Noam Chomsky… all who reminisce fondly about the record store. The film touches (fairly lightly) on new technologies that have caused music buying to change radically, a topic that could make for a film in and of itself. Ultimately, while an entertaining enough film to watch, there’s really not much of a movie there. 2 cats”
Toni says: “I would like to write a review of I NEED THAT RECORD!
“BTW, the long title is I NEED THAT RECORD! THE DEATH (OR POSSIBLE SURVIVAL) OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE :-). I think it is an honest film about both the history of accessing music and loss of the culture of small businesses like record stores and what stores have done right and wrong.
“For example, the other side of the record store world is shown when the CEO of Newbury Comics explains that if a mom and pop record store does not follow trends and have good business sense (and expands) it will not survive. Musician Glenn Branca, explains it is simply easier to purchase anything you want from Amazon and most it all available online. It also follows folks in stores and where they are going after losing their record store of evicted or bankrupt owners to dissatisfied customers that have lost their hangout.
“Also, there are many credible folks from music like Ian MacKaye of Fugazi and Minor Threat, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and activists like Noam Chomsky who tells the audience that he has not listened to music since the 1940s :-).
“I interviewed the filmmaker and this was his thesis film for Hampshire College. I happen to be in the target market of folks that shopped heavily at record stores and have followed music over the years and media heavily being a DJ in a college/community radio station since 1994 so I think that if you are not in that scene it might appeal to you less. If you have never been to Fugazi show then you may not care what Ian MacKaye has to say for example…
“In light of Michael’s previous review and think the doc is worth viewing and I have certainly seen many boring docs in this day that have seemed like that would be entertaining like WIENER TAKES ALL (now that’s a boring/unfocused movie that should have been interesting)…and maybe I like documentaries that are less ‘academic’ in nature like the statement said about FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES.
“For a very little budget, this was a well done documentary, I think. I think my suggestions might be to have been expanded more in a few areas like the radio market and the history of small stations that were bought out by many commercial and Christian conglomerates and yes National Public Radio affiliates…4 cats”