This is part eleven of a 12-part series on my experience re-building my physical film collection in response to streaming fatigue. I’m giving myself a $30/month budget for curating a new personal movie collection from thrift stores. Read the introductory post and follow along here on Retro Chronicle.
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After the terrors of January’s wildfires in Los Angeles kept me locked inside for most of the month, I was happy to find that garage sale season was resuming in Southern California. While I was mostly out looking for vintage furniture for my new North Hollywood apartment, the thrift gods blessed me with some sweet DVD deals. Let’s break ’em down.
North Hollywood garage sale: 12 For Your Consideration (FYC) Screeners – $5.00
- The Proposal
- That Evening Sun
- Brothers
- All Is Lost
- Where the Wild Things Are
- Precious
- Funny People
- Coco Before Chanel
- The Last Station
- Capote
- Adaptation
- Punch Drunk Love
It’s been four months since my last FYC screener haul, when I picked up 30 screeners for $20 at an Atwater Village garage sale. Like with that haul, I stumbled upon this garage sale by happenstance while walking around the neighborhood. I’d just dropped my car off to be serviced and went to walk around my North Hollywood neighborhood when I came upon a moving sale, organized by a member of the entertainment industry. She had a box of about 60 DVDs on a table (a quarter of which were screeners), which I sifted through in a few minutes.
As I was browsing, the seller let me know that the DVDs were $1 each but that the prices were negotiable. So I put together a small stack of 12 DVDs and made an offer: “I found these awards screeners; I’m actually a collector. Would you take $5 for this stack? I have cash.” She hesitated but accepted after my partner broke the ice with a separate purchase: $5 for a green marble ash tray and vintage Italian stovetop espresso maker.
My attitude and approach to collecting FYC screeners since the start of this experiment has evolved in various ways. The collection started out with very little intention, and it continues to grow without much structure or strategy. But sometimes that’s a part of the collecting process: following your curiosity into weird new territories. Sometimes it leads to somewhere intriguing— other times not. But nine months in, collecting FYC screeners has been so far rather fascinating. It feels like a Hollywood treasure hunt with no clear goal. Since I do not intend to watch the screeners (they’re often watermarked, low quality, or unplayable), it also feels like a side quest hunt, with most of my budget and focus remaining on hard-to-find movies from my watch list.
La Cañada Flintridge garage sale: 8 films on 6 DVDs – $5
- Lost In Translation
- Brokeback Mountain
- Magnolia
- Happy Gilmore
- Erin Brockovich
- Will Ferrell 3-Movie Collection: Step Brothers, The Other Guys, and Talladega Nights
On my way into a Saturday morning shift along the southern hills of the Verdugo Mountains, I stopped by an estate sale in the La Cañada Flintridge neighborhood. I was excited that garage sales were resuming in time for my final two months of this experiment. When I started this experiment, I did expect at least one month to contain a garage sale haul so impressive that I’d spend my entire month’s budget in one place. So far, I’ve had no such luck. But garage sales for me continue to offer the most diverse variety of films for the lowest price. The seller at this garage sale offered DVDs at a buck each. In these cases, I usually grab an extra for an easy negotiation: “Would you take $5 for these six?” always yields a “yes.”
“Magnolia” is the highlight of this batch. After the previous week’s “Punch Drunk Love” FYC screener find, I had my eyes even more peeled for Paul Thomas Anderson films. I was already keen on watching every film by the director after moving to the San Fernando Valley. “Magnolia” was towards the top of the list, as it’s one of the few PTA films I’ve yet to see and it was made with the director’s intent of making “the epic, the all-time great San Fernando Valley movie.” After this one, the similarly-packaged New Line Platinum Series edition of “Boogie Nights” is the next PTA title I’m after.
The Will Ferrell 3-Movie Collection will be added to the Slumber Party Multi-Film Collection. This one was released by Sony Pictures and follows a similar branding from the “Laugh Out Loud” collection that I found at the Sierra Madre garage sale, from month three. I continue to have a soft spot in my collection for these weird collections, especially when I can pick them up for pocket change.
I was happy to pick up this copy of “Happy Gilmore,” as it was the same edition I owned as a child. The only other Adam Sandler film that I’d like to find from this period of the comedy actor’s filmography (1995-2000) is 1998’s “The Wedding Singer.”
I mentioned wanting “Brokeback Mountain” two months ago, when I was reflecting on Heath Ledger films still on my watch list. “Brokeback Mountain” will be added to the Ang Lee filmography. This copy of “Erin Brockovich” would’ve kickstarted my Steven Soderbergh. But given that it’s still sealed and I may still find a Blu-ray copy, I’ll wait to open this unless I’m really wanting to watch this one soon. “Lost In Translation” will kickstart my Sophia Coppola filmography. With “The Virgin Suicides” and “The Bling Ring” already in my personal collection prior to the start of this experiment, “Marie Antoinette” and “Somewhere” are the Sophia Coppola films I’m most eager to add to her filmography collection.
Burbank garage sale: “Monster” (FYC) and “Christopher Robin” – $2
One week later, I stopped by a Burbank garage sale while running some errands and left with two more titles. I picked up a copy of “Monster” back in month four of this series. So finding a FYC screener to go along with it is pretty neat, especially since I’ve already found similar pairings with “The Terminal” and then with “Adaptation” earlier this month. The FYC campaign for “Monster” was successful with Charlize Theron winning the Academy Award for Best Actress. One of the strangest things to me about “Monster” is that it was the debut feature film of director Patty Jenkins, who wouldn’t direct again for 14 years, following up her ground-breaking 2003 crime drama with two boring-ass “Wonder Woman” flicks.
“Christopher Robin” is the sixth theatrically-released film in the Winnie The Pooh franchise, and the only one that’s live action. I’ve never seen this film, but as a life-long fan of the source material, I intend to complete my collection by adding the other five theatrical “Pooh” films, as well as the nine direct-to-video. The OG “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree” is at the top of my wanted list, along with the Christmas and Halloween specials and “The Tigger Movie.”
eBay: “Mallrats,“ “Dogma,” “Clerks,” and “Clerks 2” – $14.95
As February drew to a close with $18 remaining in my account and no weekends left for garage sale browsing, I took to eBay in search for a film that’s been on my watch list for ages: “Dogma.” I made an offer for 14.95 on a the lot, which the seller accepted. The film follows two fallen angels who were ejected from heaven and wind up in Wisconsin trying to make it back home. What most attracted to me to the film, like other religious satires of its day, was how agitated it made the church folks in my hometown— often a sure-fire sign something is worth checking out. Recently, my cousin had mentioned Kevin Smith was his favorite director. He was surprised that I had never watched any of his films (besides “Tusk”), given the New Jersey-born indie filmmaker’s affinity for the absurd and low-budget.
All four of these films, as well as “Chasing Amy,” which I picked up on the very first month of this series, all take place in the same universe (the “View Askewniverse”) with shared characters and overlapping stories. With “Chasing Amy” in the Criterion collection, these four finds kickstart my Kevin Smith collection. The filmmaker has directed 16 feature films of varying reception; I’ve been actively looking for “Tusk” and “Red State” since the beginning of the series, with Blu-ray copies becoming hard to come by.
Goodwill: “Wilfred – Season 2” – $3
With $3 and a few days left of the month, I popped into a local Goodwill store, where I found a sealed copy of the second season of “Wilfred.” The American remake of the Australian dark comedy series lasted four seasons, but I never finished the series when it was originally airing in 2011. My partner and I recently discuessed finishing the series, after we were reminded of the film’s abstract premise during a viewing of the AMC show “Kevin Can F*** Himself.” The second season of “Wilfred” is strangely cheap, with Amazon listing the retail price at $7.17 (it’s currently on sale for $4.99).
I would have preferred a Blu-ray copy, but strangely only the first two seasons are available on Blu-ray. I suspect this was due to the waning ratings in the U.S. I think my partner and I fell off the show at the end of season two for no particular reason, as I recall being very engaged with the increasingly deranged development of the series star, played by Elijah Wood. The show deviated from its Australian source material by more strictly defining and then exploring the mythology around the central plot, which involves a depressed man who sees his neighbor’s dog as a man dressed up as a dog. Completing the series will likely cost an additional $55, which seems like a reasonable price when factoring in the rising cost of streaming.
Consider this: If you watched only television that you bought from Goodwill, using the same funds that the average American consumer spends on streaming each month, you could potentially add roughly 20 seasons of TV to your collection each month. This would more than enough to satiate the average 20 hours of TV that Americans consumer per week, even if you only watched each season once. The math is even more generous for those who share their DVD collection with friends and family.
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Closing thoughts on film preservation in the age of fascism
Reflecting on the state of streaming over the course of this experiment has validated every concern I’ve had about the future of the industry during late stage capitalism. In the 11 months since this experiment’s start, the corporations that control the production and distribution of movies in the U.S. have demonstrated why movie lovers should begin looking into alternatives to streaming, while taking steps to safeguard their personal film collections from erasure. Unfortunately, streaming corporations now have some competition in the fight to turn filmmaking into an artless, truthless medium.
Last month’s inauguration of a fascist lunatic marked a substantial set-back for film preservation— as well as for the free speech rights that filmmakers depend on to tell the stories that they want to tell. Earlier this month in February, the president abruptly fired the head archivist of the National Archives and Records Administration, an independent agency responsible for duties crucial for preserving democracy. The president gave no reason for the firing, although it’s safe to assume the decision was related to the grudge he holds against the agency for notifying the Justice Department of his mishandling of classified documents following his first term.
Those familiar with Tr*mp’s presidential actions since the start of his second term should expect the outgoing head archivist of the National Archives and Records Administration to be soon replaced by an anti-democracy, pro-censorship appointee who shares the president’s vision for a monoculture of hyper-nationalist garbage. This month’s news of Tr*mp’s attacks on history and democracy came just months after his legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to the filmmakers of “The Apprentice,” claiming the film’s depiction of the president’s origins constitutes “direct foreign interference in America’s elections.” In other words, the president of the United States publicly declared that films that depict him unflatteringly are equivalent to some sort of foreign prying.
Based on how the first two months of Tr*mp’s second term have gone, it’s safe to assume that the rest of this presidential term will likely bring new and inventive ways to eviscerate the culture of film while censoring the stories that get to be told. In conclusion, fuck Tr*mp and long live physical media.
With these first eleven months complete, my current collection is composed of these mini collections:
- General DVDs
- General Blu-ray
- Family/Children
- Marvel
- Horror
- Found Footage
- Mumblecore
- Documentary
- Stand-up Comedy
- Music/Concert
- Director filmographies
- Paul Thomas Anderson (new)
- Wes Anderson
- Noah Baumbach
- Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
- Sophia Coppola (new)
- Cameron Crowe
- David Fincher
- Michel Gondry
- John Hughes
- Spike Jonze
- Bong Joon-ho
- Ang Lee
- Richard Linklater
- James Mangold
- Christopher Nolan
- Ruben Östlund
- Alexander Payne
- Lynne Ramsay
- Martin Scorsese
- Ridley Scott
- Kevin Smith (new)
- M. Night Shyamalan
- Steven Spielberg
- Quentin Tarantino
- Lars von Trier
- Gus Van Sant
- Robert Zemeckis
- Superbit DVDs
- Boutique labels
- Criterion
- Slumber Party Multi-Film Collection
- Television
- Children/Family Television
- For Your Consideration (Special Collection)
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This is part ten of a 12-part series on my experience re-building my physical film collection in response to streaming fatigue. I’m giving myself a $30/month budget for curating a new personal movie collection from thrift stores. Read the introductory post and follow along here.