Directing: B+
Writing: B+
Cinematography: B
Editing: A-

There’s something endearingly wholesome and nostalgic about The Last Blockbuster, a feature length documentary ode to a bygone era that simultaneously celebrates the very last vestige of that era. Who knew there were any Blockbuster video stores left? Well, since 2019, there’s only been one. And of all places, it’s in Bend, Oregon.

I can still remember the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver bit where they sent Russell Crowe memorabilia to the Blockbuster still standing in Alaska, in a joke attempt at helping them keep business alive—which gets some attention in this film. At one point there were three Blockbusters still chugging along in Alaska, and now they are all closed. So where is the Russell Crowe memorabilia now? Bend, Oregon. Apparently it did not include the most notorious piece, his leather jockstrap from Cinderella Man, and I’m a little annoyed that they don’t bother to tell us why. (Side note: I just discovered that jockstrap has its own Wikipedia page.)

It remains unclear whether the memorabilia had any vital part in keeping business alive at the Bend, Oregon location, except to say that being the last Blockbuster has clearly kept business going, focusing a massive amount of media attention on the location. It is now filled with memorabilia and other fun things fans from around the world have mailed to them, and its very status as the last Blockbuster has afforded it a novelty status unlike anything the place experienced prior to 2019. Hence, a feature length documentary on the subject.

As it happens, director and writer Taylor Morden and Zeke Kamm are hometown locals from Bend. And they smartly focus on the store’s “Blockbuster Mom,” General Manager Sandi Harding, who has been there a decade and a half and counting. Harding is a huge part of what makes The Last Blockbuster work, exuding a uniquely maternal, friendly charisma that gives her a great screen presence. And after becoming seasoned at fielding literally hundreds of media requests, she’s very comfortable on camera and clearly become fairly media savvy.

And that’s all part of the many amusing ironies about this story, not least of which is the fact that the Blockbuster in Bend is the single place on the planet you can rent a physical copy of The Last Blockbuster. Everywhere else, you have no choice but to watch it on demand. Granted, that may very well not always be the case: this film doesn’t really acknowledge that the last Blockbuster isn’t also the last movie rental store of any kind; it’s just the last location of what was once a monopolistic corporate behemoth. Here in Seattle, for example, we still have one remaining location open of local institution Scarecrow Video. Where’s our documentary about The Last Scarecrow?

Honestly, many of the talking heads in The Last Blockbuster go a little overboard on their nostalgia trip, deliberately characterizing the loss of video stores as part of us losing our souls as a collective humanity. Okay guys, rein it in a little. Pandemic social distancing aside, we do still find other ways to have in-person conversations with people. It’s easy to root for this family-run business to keep going, but the rest of our lives elsewhere in the world has not exactly been denigrated by the absence of local Blockbuster stores.

That’s not to detract from how much fun The Last Blockbuster is, however—because it is really, really fun. It’s rare that a documentary film legitimately qualifies as “a feel good movie,” but this one absolutely does. It’s delightful from start to finish, just to experience the joy through the eyes of all these people who love the memory of going to a store to rent movies. These include director Kevin Smith, Say Anything costar Ione Skye, The O.C.’s Adam Brody, comedians Brian Bosehn and Ron Funches and Doug Benson, among others. It must be said though, that here Sandi Harding remains the star. Although Doug Benson being the one celebrity who flew to Bend just to walk through the store for the documentary cameras is arguably the most fun sequence.

I found myself thinking about how the crew of this film were just part of the same media frenzy they were covering, mostly in 2019, after they became “The Last Blockbuster” (and other regular people started traveling there from literally around the world just to see it) but before the COVID-19 global pandemic of 2020. There must be quite the contrast between the craziness of 2019 and the comparatively subdued 2020 existence of a store still surviving with curbside pickup and online merchandising. They could probably do an entire sequel just on how they stayed afloat in 2020.

In the meantime, you can watch this movie, available to rent on Google Play or Prime Video for a whopping four bucks, about how they survived the collapse of their parent corporation and wound up the last Blockbuster standing. It’s not so much a horror story about the end of an era as it is an inspirational tale of scrappy resilience with a smile in a friendly small city in Central Oregon. Watch it if you want a nice dose of warm fuzzies.

Overall: B+