Rewind This! (2013) Reviews

• Quirky reminder of a lost art.

  Sergeant_Tibbs2013-10-26

  Oh the good ol' days of VHS. Yes, I wore my Disney videos down til they were just a fuzzy haze of grainy musical colours like everyone else, but my real relationship with cassettes comes from recorded movies from the TV guides. When I was first getting into film, I began my catchup with a big list of modern essentials such as Fight Club, Goodfellas, Full Metal Jacket, American Beauty, Pulp Fiction, all of which I watched and rewatched on video tape until I knew exactly where the advert breaks would come. That's essentially why I do what I do today. I never collected VHS like the subjects of this documentary, but ever since I got into DVD collecting, I've been manic. Blu-rays, books, vinyls, I collect 'em all. Although VHS is more or less useless these days (I remember the moment my player just decided to stop working, it was very irritating), I can definitely relate to the people in the film who scourer car boot sales obsessively for rarities. Rewind This! is a nostalgic reminder of why VHS deserved to be the best of their kind at the time. It's the same reason I like vinyl. They have a 'lived-in' quality we can't get from the polish of blu-ray. Little imperfections that are part of its unique identity where they've been over- paused and subsequently scarred with snowy lines of distortion. Although there's an almost Not Quite Hollywood focus on horror and porn as far as the 'hidden gems' go, it's a very interesting documentary. The film itself is well done, but admittedly, the industry professionals are far more interesting than the caricature hipsters who just really like videos. Definitely some colourful characters there on both sides. It does lack structure and its 8-bit music gives it an unwarranted sense of urgency that can be distracting, but it makes great use of cutaway footage from the video footage the subjects talk about. There's a great charm about its flaws and that kind of reflects its points about the authenticity and naivety on VHS. Worth watching. 7/10

• Important. Quintessential.

  rockhaggis9112013-04-20

  Simply put, I loved this documentary! Josh Johnson's ode to the VHS age, Rewind This! (2013) opens with a film enthusiast combing a flea market for VHS tapes, overflowing with the sort of passion any and all global VHS hunters (and film lovers) will immediately recognize. This image sets the tone. Like Not Quite Hollywood (2008) and Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010) before it, Rewind This! will whet your appetite for rare films to add to your collection, but with the added bonus of causing you to scour the earth hunting for a VHS player the second you finish watching it. Powerful stuff, and a must see for film nuts everywhere! (my favorite moment is director Frank Henenlotter explaining the unique feature on his sublime horror comedy Frankenhooker's VHS box: press a button and hear a reanimated prostitute ask you "Wanna date?" This prompts a montage of several other VHS junkies explaining the same feature, and results in the sort of rush of recognition shared by enthusiasts across the world: I personally hit that damn button a million times with every visit to the video store!)

• An Entertaining Nostalgic Look at the History of the VHS

  JustCuriosity2013-03-11

  Rewind This was well-received in its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. The film was particularly welcomed, because the filmmakers and many of the interviewees and video stores were local products. It is an extremely entertaining film that takes the audience through the history of how the VHS tape really transformed society. The clips of old VHS films are incredibly entertaining. There are many funny observations and stories about this world that seems to be fast disappearing. Thematically, the film shows us how the ability to watch movies on our own schedules in our own homes transformed the relationship of individuals to the entertainment world. For the first time, anyone could watch almost any movie in the comfort of their own home. We forget the social implications today of bringing movies (and, yes, porn) from the theater into the home. The film also explores the world of the nostalgic collectors who maintain large collections of VHS films that haven't been re-released on DVD and blu-ray. (They seem particularly obsessed with low grade horror movies.) There is a heavy element of nostalgia as they defend their beloved medium and its virtues. The film might seem strange to the younger generation, but it brings back a lot of memories for those of us who grew up during the VHS revolution.

• Hard to call the medium dead

  StevePulaski2014-01-19

  I've always had a fondness for home media, the variety of formats that once existed, the obscure oddities one can find on VHS, and venturing through video stores and flea markets to make new discoveries. Because of this, I'm part of the obvious audience for Rewind This!, a delightful homage to the brilliant and once-ubiquitous home media that was VHS, and how its impact on the movie industry and the public is still prevalent today. Here's a film that will leave the devoted fans of VHS (like me) just wanting more. For the reason that I'm a huge supporter of the VHS-resurgence movement and continue to buy and collect the media, I'm going to try to make this review not sound like simple- minded fandom constructed into an essay. The film makes a bold attempt at trying to tackle everything VHS, from its meteoric rise, its unfathomable effect on the film industry as a whole, its fan, and its differences from its contemporaries. The documentary allows several people to make statements, some directors, some preservationists, some distributors (including the late Mike Vraney of Something Weird Video) but many the fans and supporters of the medium who rekindle their love for its simplicity and its immensity. VHS, to me, is such a unique way to watch film, mainly because of the primitiveness and sensitiveness of the device. With tape, there were many more issues that could arouse, with the worse case scenario it getting stuck in your player. But then there are the imperfections of the picture, such as the glitches, the occasional sloppiness of its appearance, the degradation of the tape when certain scenes are played too much, etc. Then there is the box art, which is a work of art in itself. A section of the film devotes itself to showing how unique and inventive the artwork to the VHS covers were, with them often being handpainted and meticulously put together rather than the depressing, effortless, digitized movie-covers/posters we're so used to today. Furthermore, the film shows how daring and unique home video really was at the time of its inception. Had it not been for an optimistic soul like Andre Ray, who worked for a video engineering company in the seventies, perhaps home video wouldn't have come around so quickly. Ray, who helped manufacturer videotapes at the time, wondered if you could put a full length movie on a certain size tape. When he discovered it was possible, he contacted several movie studios, hoping to get them to buy into the idea of consumers having their films to cherish and watch at their leisure. Few bought in, but one of them happened to be Fox (pre-Star Wars fame), who allowed them to put several of their classic titles on tape at roughly $80 - $90 a pop. Ray didn't even foresee the explosion of the rental industry, which simply came along because numerous people wanted a try-it-before-you-buy-it kind of system, simplifying the process of discovering a film for consumers even more. Oddly enough, that became the defining industry set forth by the home video boom. Nobody could foresee the industry taking off let the industry where people wander around a store swarmed with movies picking out whichever ones they wanted for a Friday night viewing. The film does a good job at articulating a question I had for a while and that is why were so many film distribution companies around during the inception of VHS that have since went on to disappear or go defunct in recent times. This is because of experimentation. When rental stores started popping up, they needed films to line their shelves. And thus, numerous distributors began popping up, inquiring quirky, often weird, experimental slashers or just asinine little gems to produce and help keep stores lined with inventory. Eventually, the studios took over and it became the big five or six companies calling all the shots. One subject that could've been explored much more in depth was the idea of cheap VHS bootlegging, which was done through magazine, handmade flyers, and communication via mail. People would make list of films they had that were either banned, rare, or out of print and would transfer them to blank tapes then smuggle them through the mail. However, due to some strict federal regulations, often times people would tape part of a TV show to play before the actual film to fool potential inspectors. Vraney talks about his experience as a bootlegger, as well as several others, but the revealing and now extinct process is a bit shortchanged and given maybe three to four minutes of attention. Rewind This! beautifully articulates obsession, impact, and legacy, and never drags or becomes boring, mainly because its subjects have so much insight and observations to offer. It's a must see for the obvious fans of the medium, but due to its commentary on an industry most all of us indulge in, it should almost be mandatory viewing. Directed by: Josh Johnson.

• Get schooled in everything VHS

  ThrowItMyWay2013-03-12

  It's been a long time since I've been as mesmerized as I was while viewing the world premiere of Rewind This! at this years SXSW Film Festival. I was clinging to every word uttered from everyone interviewed in this, dare I say...instant cult documentary. As a consumer who was there at it's inception, I ate up all things VHS. To be able to record a show not only to watch at your convenience, but to keep as your own was the ultimate in entertainment fandom as far as I was concerned. To be able to buy or record a movie that you already saw in the theater was just how life was meant to be. I was the ideal consumer because I bought anything and everything it took to enjoy the VHS experience. This documentary delves into every aspect of that and so much more with the love and devotion you'd expect from such ardent fans as Josh Johnson, Carolee Mitchell, and Christopher Palmer...my friends. So do yourself and your well-being a favor and treat yourself to what is cinema gold...Rewind This!