At first glance I thought I’d seen this kind of documentary before, eulogizing the golden age of movie palaces and the rise and fall of drive-ins. But filmmaker Rustin Thompson is focused on a different and distinct kind of theater specifically located in the Western part of our country. There is a reason he incorporates footage from The Last Picture Show (1971). Peter Bogdanovich’s adaptation of the Larry McMurtry novel depicts the emblematic small-town main street bijou he honors. As its advertising promises, he covers 123 theaters in ten states, covering 10,825 miles.
Thompson finds beauty in the ordinary, and his camera lingers on streets where the movie house is not just the only game in town but the sole commercial establishment in sight. Its bright lights and neon marquee often serves as a beacon for the community it inhabits.
The theater names are colorful, sometimes aspirational, and often unique: the Gem, the Kiva, the Ruby, the Alpine, the Rio, the Princess, the Ritz, the Rialto. My favorite is the Eltrym, which is the original owner’s wife’s name spelled backwards.
Early on we meet the owners and operators of these establishments. None of them are in it for the money, because there is so little of it. Many are second-generation exhibitors who continue doing what they do out of habit, inertia, and/or a sense of responsibility to their clientele. They suffer the slings and arrows of the major distributors, who show little respect for their uphill financial battle. Yet they persevere.
At a time when so-called social media encourages and enables us to be alone it reminds us of the vital importance of gathering together. The people who appear on camera demonstrate a uniquely American can-do spirit, swimming against the tide and somehow surviving. The Last Picture Shows is a moving and poetic slice of Americana.
If you are in Los Angeles, writer-director-producer-editor Rustin Thompson and author/teacher Ross Melnick are appearing with the film on its opening night Friday, August 21 at the Laemmle Royal Theater. For more info, click HERE.
