The Nineties: A Book

by Chuck Klosterman

But the effect on filmmaking was profound. Video stores invented a new kind of independent director that became so pervasive it instantly became a caricature: the fiscally insolvent, vociferously unglamorous dude (and it was always a dude) who used his video store experience to build an encyclopedic, unorthodox, pretentious cinematic worldview. The 1995 coming-of-age comedy Kicking and Screaming includes a minor character who manages a video store while preparing to direct his own feature film, yet plans to continue working in the video store after his movie is released so that he can properly stock it on the shelves. “The video store was the beginning of everything. It was the cradle of civilization,” director Kevin Smith says in the 2015 oral history I Lost It at the Video Store. “It was like having a film library. You could watch anything and you could watch it over and over again.” Smith was the insolvent, unglamorous indie director sent from central casting.