PalCinema Review: Kim's Video
January 3, 2025
FILM: KIM’S VIDEO
DIRECTED BY: DAVID REDMON, ASHLEY SABIN
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Ah yes! It’s bittersweet to think about the days of video stores. One had to actually get off the couch and drive (or walk or bike) to the nearest Blockbuster or mom and pop store. There was always something fun about perusing the shelves trying to find a box with a cover that promised adventure, romance, horror, or anything one desired in the moment. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu offer the same today but it’s just not the same.
The new documentary Kim’s Video focuses on the legacy of one such store that had its heyday in the 1980s and early 90s in New York City. Claiming to have over 55,000 titles to rent, the establishment featured a membership along with titles not found at the big chains like Blockbuster, including bootlegs and hard to find international films. Then, like all such stores, Kim’s Videos closed with the advent of digital streaming. Filmmaker David Redmon had a membership to the store and decided to search for details as to the whereabouts of its many films.
The documentary takes Redmon and his colleague Ashley Sabin to Sicily where the entire collection allegedly ended up. What follows is a series of adventures for which they have several goals only to find deeper questions requiring further exploration. It’s kind of a fun “whodunit” mystery that involves a small town, a mayor, language barriers, a fire, and some water damaged videos and DVDs. Redmon also meets up with Mr. Kim himself who comes across as a tough, businessman with possible ties to the Italian government. There are also a lot of interviews with former members of the store, clerks, as well as political figures.
The film is a pleasant enough experience as the story zigs and zags across a couple of continents all the while showing scenes from many of the well-known films in Kim’s collection. They serve to reflect Redmon’s journey and his own obsession with film and the various journeys found within many of them. At one point a heist is staged in the vein of other heist genre films to try to recover some of the videos. Most of this is played for laughs but there is a real goal here: to bring whatever films back home for people to discover in the 21st Century.
In the end, the film pays homage to and even embraces the importance of bygone video stores. Perhaps we still need what they had to offer. They might help us to move on from the algorithms created for us by today’s streaming services where titles come and go depending on the licenses associated with distribution. I like the idea to feely roam and discover new titles! Heck, even some of those video and DVD boxes were artful enough to prominently display on a home shelf! (Ok, so yes, I still have many…)
One question the film does pose, and I wish it spent more time on, is with limited space, which films should be kept? Should bootlegs be around forever? What about pornographic films and those that failed miserably at the box office? Here’s the thing: if Netflix dumps a movie from its service where could you find it if you didn’t own the physical copy? I always tell the college students I teach to hold on to their favorites. Yes, you might have to move them around a few times in your life but they’re worth it.
Kim’s Video reminds us of the joy of videos and why a certain generation would do anything to keep them from fading into oblivion.
Kim’s Video is currently streaming on MUBI and is available for rent/purchase on Amazon Prime.
For the archive of PalCinema reviews click here.
Hi Dan,
This is a wonderful review! I recently watched Kim's Video on Mubi too, and I was engrossed by how much work, effort, and deceit went into getting the collection back to the U.S. But, one question I could never get out of my mind as I watched the documentary, was wondering how many of these titles are now available on other formats like dvd and blu-ray? It seems like everything in the collection was a VHS tape. Still, in the end, I'm glad they were able to bring most of the collection back to the U.S. and that the collection ended up in a good place.