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Tom Roston
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I Lost It At the Video Store: A Filmmakers' Oral History of a Vanished Era Hardcover – September 15, 2015

by Tom Roston (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 61 ratings
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Selected by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Indie Books of 2015.

Filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and Darren Aronofsky, who came of age during the reign of video rentals, discuss an era of cinema history which, though gone, continues to shape film culture today.

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  1. Print length
    160 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    The Critical Press
  4. Publication date
    September 15, 2015
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1941629156
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1941629154
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

''This is a book that was waiting to happen, and fortunately it was Tom Roston who wrote it. After we lost it at the movies, a later era of cinephiles lost it at the video store, and this is their story in their words--nostalgic, vivid, and important, because video germinated a new generation of great filmmakers.'' --Peter Biskind, author of Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film

''Informative, hilarious, a little sad, but mostly just exuberant: This chronicle of a lost era details not just how the video-rental revolution shaped a generation of filmmakers, but how it changed the ways we watch and talk about film. It may even make you nostalgic for rewinding.'' --Stephanie Zacharek, Chief Film Critic, The Village Voice

''A Proustian madeleine of a book, I Lost It at the Video Store celebrates the images and textures of a nearly-gone era, as well as examining its importance to a generation of artists.'' --Matt Zoller Seitz, editor-in-chief, RogerEbert.com

''What a terrific read. It's a blast to revisit those (delightful, maddening) hours I spent trying to pick a movie, from the perspective of Tarantino, Sayles, and the rest of the all-star cast Tom Roston has assembled. These smart, funny, and sometimes-clashing voices from the other side of the VHS box reveal how video-store culture worked, how it influenced filmmaking, and what's lost and gained in the streaming world that's replacing it. The result is an entertaining story that goes way beyond nostalgia: It will make you appreciate why the video-shop era mattered, whether you lived through it or not.'' --Rob Walker, author of Buying In: What We Buy and Who We Are

''[Video] stores themselves have faded into history, but their now-famous onetime inhabitants--Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Doug Liman and Darren Aronofsky, among others--remember them well. Their stories, assembled here, provide a memorable chronicle of a golden age of pure movie love.'' -- Kurt Loder, film critic and former MTV host --Reviews

''Using interviews with a wide array of filmmakers, former Premiere editor Roston brings the magic of video stores to life.'' --Kirkus Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"This is a book that was waiting to happen, and fortunately it was Tom Roston who wrote it. After we lost it at the movies, a later era of cinephiles lost it at the video store, and this is their story in their words nostalgic, vivid, and important, because video germinated a new generation of great filmmakers." -- Peter Biskind, author of Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film "Informative, hilarious, a little sad, but mostly just exuberant: This chronicle of a lost era details not just how the video-rental revolution shaped a generation of filmmakers, but how it changed the ways we watch and talk about film. It may even make you nostalgic for rewinding." --Stephanie Zacharek, Chief Film Critic, The Village Voice "A Proustian madeleine of a book, I Lost It at the Video Store celebrates the images and textures of a nearly-gone era, as well as examining its importance to a generation of artists." --Matt Zoller Seitz, editor-in-chief, RogerEbert.com "What a terrific read. It's a blast to revisit those (delightful, maddening) hours I spent trying to pick a movie, from the perspective of Tarantino, Sayles, and the rest of the all-star cast Tom Roston has assembled. These smart, funny, and sometimes-clashing voices from the other side of the VHS box reveal how video-store culture worked, how it influenced filmmaking, and what's lost and gained in the streaming world that's replacing it. The result is an entertaining story that goes way beyond nostalgia: It will make you appreciate why the video-shop era mattered, whether you lived through it or not." --Rob Walker, author of Buying In: What We Buy and Who We Are

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Critical Press (September 15, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1941629156
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1941629154
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 61 ratings

About the author

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Tom Roston

Tom Roston

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Tom Roston is a veteran journalist who began his career at The Nation and Vanity Fair magazines, before working at Premiere magazine as a senior editor. His work appears in The New York Times, Salon, Fast Company, The Guardian and other publications.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
61 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Anthony Eales
5.0 out of 5 stars A short but fun nostalgia ride into video stores
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2015
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I knew I was going to enjoy this book going in. The subject matter of a nostalgia ride with some of my favourite directors as the guide for video stores through the 80s, 90s & early 2000s just stood out to me.

My main nostalgia for video stores was in the late 90s with VHS & most of the 2000s with DVDs until the Internet took over as my delivery mechanism. Two of the three video stores I used to frequent are long shut down. The last one puzzles me as to how it can be still in business.

Anyway this book is short but sweet. Full of stories from great directors of the video store era, some of whom worked in video stores detailing their experiences with video stores. It also deals with the fall of video stores and rise of the Internet & the streaming & piracy that ended up ending the ride for the everyday video store. The battle between Mum & Pop video stores vs. corporates like Blockbuster is explored as well.

Quentin Tarantino & Kevin Smith are strong features of the book. With some details of how they transitioned from video store clerks to making movies.

Overall I'd recommend this to people who grew up with video stores as well as those interested in the history of film. It would also be interesting for those who didn't frequent video stores to get an idea what the craze was all about.

Thanks to SlashFilm for the recommend.
2 people found this helpful
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keviny01
4.0 out of 5 stars Review of the Kindle version
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2015
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This book is a light read and it can be finished in half a day by a slow reader, but it is a worthwhile read for those who can relate to the 80s and 90s home video phenomenon. It begins with a terrific introduction by Tom Rostin who gives an overview of the history and significance of home video, especially VHS tapes. It ends with a reprint of a NY Times article on the closing of Kim's Video store in Manhattan. The bulk of the book are transcripts (with editing) of several conversations with filmmakers and film executives who recount how the home video business in the 80s and 90s changed their lives. The topics discussed range from anecdotal experiences of being a video store clerk (Kevin Smith confesses to using the porn section to "pleasure himself"), how the video business helped the indie film movement, how the advent of Netflix and streaming killed off the video rental business, to almost existential opinionations of what video stores (and their demise) meant to the public. Participants include Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, David O. Russell, Larry Estes, Allison Anders, Janet Pierson, Luc Besson, Darren Aronofsky, and several others. A few black-and-white photos of the participants are also included in the book.

With that many people, we get a wide variety of viewpoints, but unfortunately not too many exchanges nor back-and-forths. Due to the transcript format, opinions are given out in bits and pieces. Kevin Smith is the only one who is given a whole chapter where only he gives his opinions. I wish every participant would have the floor the same way he did. As in every conversation, some speakers always dominate more than others, and the same is true here. I barely got any output from Luc Besson (who speaks maybe 2-3 times in the whole book), whereas Kevin Smith opines on nearly everything, and he has his own chapter.

Some of the participants are fairly passionate about their views. When Tarantino talks about how Netflix makes it unnecessarily to go to a video store, he says incredulously, "And that's progress? Progress is not leaving your home? I like eating at home too, but once in a while I like going to a restaurant too." Such passion makes me want to see how the actual interview went down. I surely wish the interviewer recorded the whole thing on video and/or audio. Playing it back would be like watching "My Dinner with Andre". Great conversations need to be read AND watched.
6 people found this helpful
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Ryan Lieske
3.0 out of 5 stars Slight, but fun read.
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2018
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Slight, but fun read.
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Dutch Guy
5.0 out of 5 stars Good condition great read
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2021
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Great read good condition
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Nerdysomething
2.0 out of 5 stars While not a bad book, it dwells too much on business models ...
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2015
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While not a bad book, it dwells too much on business models and production of RESERVOIR DOGS, etc.....and doesn't delve deep enough into the films that got the directors/writers hooked on movie making, as well as the customers, make-up of the stores, junk titles, etc. The minutia of the video store gets short shrift. On top of that, at over twenty dollars, it's amazingly steep a price for a slim volume that should've cost ten bucks. WAY too pricey for such a short read.
6 people found this helpful
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Gonzalo Paz
5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book if you rented more movies than you can watch at the Video Store
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2020
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Love letter to an era that changed everything for good.
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Sebastian Zavala
4.0 out of 5 stars Made me very nostalgic
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2016
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This book's been receiving some harsh reviews, stating it's not as deep as it could've been. Well, yeah, it kinda only touches the surface of the subject, and yeah, the interviews are not very well balanced. We get a lot of Kevin Smith, for example, and quite a bit of Quentin Tarantino, but people like James Franco or Luc Besson only appear sporadically.
Nevertheless, I really liked this book. Being a "90s kid", I'm really nostalgic about the whole video store sub-culture, even though here in Peru we only had Blockbuster and a couple other options (West Coast Video and Drugstore Home Video). I liked the way all these filmmakers and producers and executives had different opinions regarding the life and death of these stores--from Tarantino, who simply doesn't understand WHY people stopped going to video stores, to Darren Aronofsky, who gets that people are watching more and more films online, and had to actually do an iPhone-compatible sound mix for his movie Noah.
All in all, it's a very entertaining, somewhat light, but very interesting book. And if you have a very particular nostalgic feeling for these physical formats, for the ritual of going to the store and actually collecting movies in a physical form, you're gonna love it.
2 people found this helpful
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Weapon X
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved reading this
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2016
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I worked at blockbuster for 10 years. this book nails the time period. a lost time. in this age of streaming. I loved reading this. and remember..""BE KIND REWIND""
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Top reviews from other countries

twitchkowitz
2.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff...just not enough of it for the price!
Reviewed in Canada on February 18, 2019
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No complaints about the text itself (except that it needs another round of copy editing to rinse out some glaring typos) - readers will know if this book is for them based on the title alone. - but even with the additional interview material in the expanded print edition, it's still slim pickings for $15.77. Get the Kindle eBook instead if you're so inclined, but don't expect it to include that additional material - it didn't when I tried it a while back - so be prepared to contact Amazon Customer Service about that, or about a refund depending on how strongly you feel about it.
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Ronan Lennon
3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable , short book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2015
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Interesting book, nicely written but a bit too short
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J. J. Casayuran
4.0 out of 5 stars A quick read worthy of anyone who likes filmmaking.
Reviewed in Australia on September 29, 2015
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For anyone who has fond memories of going to the video store, this is worth the read. Basically a compilation of conversations with different filmmakers about a bygone era and the impact that the video store had on the film industry.
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