This bizarre retro comedy, shot entirely on VHS, takes us back to 1986. You know, when everything was still so straightforward. That’s the year 12-year-old Ralph gets a video camera for Christmas. He immediately starts making home videos and recording TV shows he isn’t supposed to watch. He accidentally erases his parents’ wedding video while doing so, though. The result is a deliciously nostalgic stew of Tel Sell ads, meditative landscape painting and censored B-grade porn, which totally loses the plot. Even the American version of the Antiques Roadshow feels grim here.
This fun, well-thought-out pastiche of cultural criticism and nostalgia with cameos from Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins (the director’s parents) refers equally to the past and present. A scientist on a talk show prophetically warns us about the dangers of video: “One day we will all have mini VHS cams in our pockets! The world will exist to be filmed”.
Film details
- Country of production
- USA
- Year
- 2019
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2020
- Length
- 72"
- Medium/Format
- DCP
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