VideoHeaven, from Director Alex Ross Perry is a wonderfully dense rumination on the life and roles of the all but disappeared video store.
Standing at a mighty 2hr 53mins this film is more so a collection of finely crafted essays which build upon each other, rather than a classic narrative documentary. Taking a more dry, literary approach to the genre of the essay film which can often be poetic like in Welles’s F for Fake or a small screen series of individual lead personal essays like those on YouTube or Netflix’s Voir, here instead we get a thick compendium film for the big screen. Where every essay is a complete work by itself, placed together to paint a very rich exploration that can be taken in all at once rather than in pieces like a dense book.
Through the film we are adeptly guided by the voice of Maya Hawke. Whose kind yet matter a fact reading gives the film a tone and rhythm which may take the viewer a second to get used to but becomes so comfortable to listen to. Helping the viewer from not getting exhausted by the constant stream of words and ideas which can sometimes leave you behind. As the film constantly moves, not having the time to stop and let the viewer mull over the ideas presented due to its already lengthy runtime.
Videoheaven through its hyper specific lens is able to cover a lot of ground which crosses into, at times, conversations of cinema, what spaces can mean to us, how society treats porn, love, loneliness and what it’s like to hold something dear in your heart which is now gone. With so many rich ideas explored, Videoheaven is a film that I know for a fact I will turn to again and again, to chew on and to simply enjoy.
Videoheaven is now playing at the Melbourne International Film festival as well as being a part of their on-demand selection.
Review by Billy Newberry