Revisit the video generation with classics, docs in Sept

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Nostalgia is a tough drug to kick, but sometimes it’s exactly what you need.

For the most fanatic film-lovers, there’s often nothing better than slipping back in time to the periods past when movies could be iconic, understated, or even deeply personal little secrets for yourself.

For moviegoers of a certain age, there are still no stronger memories than perusing the aisles of a video store, standing in line to see an unexpected, word-of-mouth blockbuster, or stumbling upon an underseen gem on cable in the middle of the night.

Well, if any of those mental images activate the old familiar sense of longing and whimsy in your brain, then OKC theaters have a lineup of films in September that you’ll no doubt want to catch.

From the father of all summer blockbusters to a forgotten slacker classic to the single greatest and most important teen movie of all time (that’s right, I’m calling it,) city theaters are taking you back to a time before capes and cinematic universes ruled the screen.

And it’s all kicking off with a brand new documentary about the lost culture of the home video generation itself.

‘Videoheaven’ – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – Thursday, September 4^th

There was some kind of strange, unexplainable liminal space magic in the video stores of old, with row after row of choices and the undeniable feeling of infinite possibilities.

Or maybe that was just being young.

Either way, the video store represented an entire industry, culture, and model of engagement that has been mostly erased in the modern world by streaming, on-demand digital, and the rapidly disappearing window of time before theatrical and home releases for films.

In “Videoheaven,” documentarian-autuer Alex Ross Perry seeks to explore and examine that largely lost industry of home video and the pop-cultural dominance it once acheived.

With images and clips compiled from endless commercials, home movies, and above all, the cinematic depictions of video stores within movies and shows themselves, Perry lays out his “essay film” through the narration of actress Maya Hawke, considering the lifespan of the cultural relic that was the video rental store.

With physical media lately coming back into fashion among mainstream-shirking younger generations and nostalgia-hungry adults alike, this may just be the perfect moment for a film like this.

For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit okcmoa.com.

‘Jaws’ 50^th Anniversary – Opens wide August 29^th

Arguably the one film most responsible for the entire concept of the “summer blockbuster,” and for the now ubiquitous pop culture lynchpin that it’s become, Steven Spielberg’s seminal “Jaws” sits rightly atop any list of the most important Hollywood films of all time.

But it also represents a very different entertainment world and a wildly different cinematic landscape from the one we have now.

Spielberg’s immortal story of a beach town terrorized by a killer shark and the everyday guys that overcome fears, traumas, and family tensions to take it down was a worldwide cinematic phenomenon on its first run, seeing packed theaters and long lines everywhere you looked.

But that wasn’t because of a multi-million-dollar pre-opening ad blitz like we see now. It was from word of mouth, repeat views, gradually building fandom, and perhaps more than anything else, because it had to be seen in a theater in an age before the prevalence of home video.

You can pretty easily split the film industry into a time before “Jaws” and a time after, when studios started dumping all their resources into manufacturing that same kind of fervor and blockbuster bucks.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been living in the world that “Jaws” created now for five decades, but here we are.

‘The Breakfast Club’ 40^th Anniversary – Opens wide September 7^th

It’s the greatest teen movie in history and I’ll hear no argument to the contrary.

John Hughes’ incomparable deep dive into the lives and minds of teenage emotions and high school dynamics over one day in detention is still the best and most thoughtful portrayal of the angst, confusion, dissatisfaction, and even absurdity of American youth.

At least for the pre-smartphone era, anyway.

But “The Breakfast Club” is also another film that saw its life and its impact continue to grow across the home video generation, as new teens discovered it for themselves year after year at friends’ houses, video stores, and on cable.

It’s a film that still holds up shockingly well with every re-watch, even given its legacy as an “80s movie,” because it’s really not about the world of its time. It’s about a time in all of our lives.

Again, it’s wild to realize that “The Breakfast Club” is now old enough to be entirely distrusted and hated by the characters in “The Breakfast Club,” but sometimes it’s just nice to revisit your old friends from high school.

‘SubUrbia’ presented by VHS & Chill – Bookish – Thursday, September 18^th

A quintessential “home video generation” kind of movie, Richard Linklater’s “SubUrbia” is one that came and went from theaters with little fanfare and then grew into a definite 90s cult classic on video store shelves over the next decade.

Continuing Linklater’s wonderfully sympathetic obsession with regular people living regular lives, “SubUrbia” is just a simple look at a group of 90s twenty-somethings burning off a night on the corner by the same kind of suburban convenience store that you’ll find anywhere in America.

“SubUrbia” isn’t just of the home video generation, it’s about it. In many ways, in fact, it could be “The Breakfast Club” a few years later, no longer angry at the inaccessible lives ahead of them, but now angry at the un-retrievable lives behind them.

So it feels more apt than ever to catch a movie like “SubUrbia” in a used book store presented by home video nostalgia purveyors VHS & Chill.

For more, visit shop-bookish.com and follow @vhsandchill on Instagram.

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Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

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