One of my very first jobs was working for a mom & pop video store back in Washington, D.C. The owner let me work behind the counter when I was 12, which was highly illegal given that I was renting porno movies to adults. (It only got weird when customers asked for recommendations.) I worked for the store on and off for many years, watching three movies a day, building my movie vocabulary. The independent video store is a dying, damn near dead breed. Even in L.A. there’s Cinefile, Vidiots (Santa Monica), and Rocket Video (Hollywood) and that’s pretty much it. Eventually even these stores will be made obsolete by V.O.D., download services, and videos-by-mail. But nothing can replace the holier-than-thou attitude of the video store clerk. Cinefile makes good on the implicit pact of the independent video store: attitude, surly condescension by video store clerks, absolute elitism regarding obscure Tanzanian bush directors, and a commitment to misanthropy in exchange for really, really hard to find and out of print material. I love Cinefile and if I lived closer I’d use them all the time. Japanese, Sudanese, or Swedish film nut? They stock non-region 1 DVDs and sell the players that can play them. (Though if you own a Mac and download mactheripper you can rip any region DVD and watch the file on your computer.) Organize your library by director and fetish? So do they. Need to know the difference between every single Police Academy movie in the Steve Gutenberg ouvre? They can probably tell you. They might hit you, but they can tell you. Sign up for the occasional email and read about all the great movies you’re missing because Netflix doesn’t stock really obscure stuff.
(310) 312-8836, 11280 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles