Joe Oliveto has over a decade of experience covering tech, physical media, and entertainment. His work has appeared in such digital publications as HuffPost, Thrillist, Yahoo!, Time, Elite Daily, Cracked, and numerous others. Along with collecting physical media, his hobbies include hiking, reading, going to concerts, and attending repertory film screenings throughout NYC.
We physical media fans are a fun bunch. We have strong opinions about film, TV, books, and music, and we care deeply about how they’re consumed.
Maybe a little too deeply. That’s up for debate. Regardless, as fans of everything from vinyl records to Blu-ray discs, we enjoy discussing the merits of the physical media experience with anyone tolerant enough to listen. We also enjoy the type of content that celebrates our passion for media that you actually own.
Consider these examples. If you love physical media like many of us around here do, you’ll likely enjoy these movies and documentaries that feature characters and content that speaks your language.
High Fidelity
The ultimate record store movie for music nerds
The benefits of physical media are numerous. There’s even research indicating that you might actually enjoy content more if you consume it via a physical format instead of as a digital download or through a streaming platform.
Another reason physical media inspires such passion among its devotees is the fact that purchasing records can actually involve going to a brick-and-mortar shop owned and staffed by people who are equally enthusiastic about music.
The characters who staff Championship Vinyl, the record shop in High Fidelity (based on Nick Hornby’s novel of the same name), may represent a degree of music snobbery that not everyone finds agreeable. That’s kind of the point. The movie knows these characters care more about music than the average consumer.
In real life, that means they might be insufferable. In a movie, they’re fun to hang out with for a few hours. With Jack Black, John Cusack, and Todd Louiso bantering back-and-forth about albums with the kind of granular knowledge that comes from being a true music obsessive, it’s easy to get nostalgic for the experience of hanging around a record shop and getting recommendations from humans instead of an algorithm. Given that physical media is making a comeback, that could be an experience that becomes commonplace once again.
I can dream.
All Things Must Pass
The Tower Records documentary might make you cry
Tower Records was an anomaly among chain stores. While it had the resources of a major chain, every Tower Records location (at least of those I personally visited) had the feel of an indie shop. Along with major releases, Tower Records stocked hard-to-find rarities that Best Buy would never have carried. Perhaps more importantly, it seemed to be staffed by the kind of folks who you’d expect to see in, well, High Fidelity.
Tower Records isn’t around any longer. It went out of business in the U.S. before the big vinyl resurgence. Today, it’s hard to imagine a large chain of record shops succeeding in the age of Spotify. The market for physical media might be growing again, but it’s still not likely large enough to support multiple Tower Records throughout the nation.
All Things Must Pass, directed by Colin Hanks, chronicles the story of this legendary institution. In doing so, it offers viewers a chance to celebrate the magic of buying records from a shop owned by people who actually love music. High Fidelity offers the romcom version of this experience, but All Things Must Pass reminds you that it’s an experience you really used to be able to participate in.
You’ve Got Mail
The classic Hanks-Ryan-Ephron collab celebrates pre-Amazon bookstores
Loving physical media isn’t just about being a fan of vinyl. Paper books also count as physical media!
Few movies capture the bookshop culture better than You’ve Got Mail. Featuring unbearably pleasant performances by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, with one of Nora Ephron’s best scripts keeping everything light and fun, the movie depicts a battle between an independent children’s bookshop and a Barnes and Noble-style behemoth as they fight to attract readers in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Some readers prefer those small bookshops that have had the same owner for decades. Others enjoy browsing the massive selection at a chain. This delightful picture depicts both experiences. It also depicts an innocent time when neither of these characters understood that Amazon was the real threat.
Clerks
A side character makes us want Blockbuster back
The protagonist of Clerks might be a cashier at a convenience store. However, Dante spends much of this movie discussing pop culture with Randall, who works at the adjacent video store. Already, it checks off a box that resonates with many a physical media fan.
The very existence of the store Randall works at ages this movie considerably. Nowadays, we don’t even have Blockbuster, let alone an independent video rental shop. Still, those of us with fond memories of Friday nights spent looking for something worth watching may see Clerks as a reminder that enjoying movies used to mean going to places where you could talk about those movies with other people.
That’s not exactly an experience Netflix has managed to replicate yet.
There are honorable mentions, of course. Don’t worry if your favorite flick or documentary didn’t make this list. There’s plenty of love to share with Empire Records, The Last Blockbuster, and, of course, Vinyl.
The point is that these movies dramatize a benefit of physical media that’s easy to overlook. Enjoying physical media and engaging with it can be a social activity. After all, isn’t sharing music, movies, and books with others (part of) what art is really all about?