Director Julia Marchese's Documentary does a good job of showing how revival movie theaters shine a light on related issues within the industry. Using Hollywood's famed New Beverly Cinema (where Marchese herself worked at the time) as the focus, she also discusses how the conversion of movie houses from film to digital not only effects how movies are shown, but, the very preservation of the medium of 35mm film. One factoid that is repeated here is that the studios literally bribed theaters by offering digital conversion discounts to the owners if they tossed out their 35mm projectors!
Marchese interviewed the then current staff, along with a number of the Cinema's 'regulars' including actors Clu Gulager and Patton Oswalt. Several filmmakers who have helped curate retrospectives at the theater are also extensively interviewed such as Joe Dante, Edgar Wright and Stuart Gordon. They all speak passionately about both the New Beverly and their love of 35mm film projection. A brief history of the theater and of its founder, the late Sherman Torgan, is detailed (Torgan's son Michael took over upon his father's passing in 2007). Marchese intersperses delightful vintage movie theater intermission clips throughout (some of which I distinctly remember seeing at this Cinema). It's well put-together and makes a persuasive case why 35mm and Revival Houses still have a vital place in the movie-going landscape.
Still, seeing this film a few years later, it comes off as more than a little bittersweet. While the Doc was being completed, Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino took over management of the theater in 2014. Marchese, who had hoped to premiere OUT OF PRINT there, was fired by the new regime. She released this Doc the next day having that opportunity taken away from her. In that way, OUT OF PRINT is really the story of the Torgan's family's run at the theater. Meanwhile, even as the New Beverly has survived, a number of other Revival Houses, 2nd run theaters and other independent cinemas were shuttered because of the expenses involved with converting to digital. And, the studios have increasingly made it more and more onerous to the remaining outlets that can show celluloid to rent 35mm prints. Sadly, things have only gotten worse for these theaters in the six years hence (and that was all before the pandemic).
All in all, OUT OF PRINT is a nice document of the house that Sherman Torgan built, even if it's now comes with very mixed emotions.