The Booksellers (2020)

Film: The Booksellers (2020)
Stars: Fran Lebowitz
Director: DW Young
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

If you've got an eye for detail or you read this blog religiously, you might notice that I haven't done something yet this year.  While I have seen, by my count, ten films in theaters this year (including one retro screening and two shorts compilations), I have not seen a "2020" movie yet this year, one that was released and intended for 2020.  This is obviously not my fault (for the most part).  While I had a lot of intentions of seeing some movies, and in fact nearly saw The Gentlemen (oh how I wish I had now), and certainly will see Emma & Onward at some point, Covid-19 got in the way of that, and movie theaters being closed cost me that opportunity.  Still, I had been holding out, as I like seeing movies that are new in theaters.  I like supporting theaters, whether they be local chains or national ones, and I love going to the movies.  The idea that I wasn't going to have my "first" 2020 movie experience in a theater was a huge bummer to me.  But as the lack of leadership from the White House and people handling coronavirus in increasingly irresponsible ways makes it unlikely I'll be in a movie theater for at least another couple of months, I decided it was time to break down & see a 2020 movie.  Luckily, The Booksellers, a documentary film that had definitely peaked my interest, was doing a promotion where if you buy a ticket you can support a local theater and some of the profits would go to them, and so this appeased my conscience & obsessive-compulsiveness just a little bit, and so while it'll always have an asterisk next to it, in my heart I got to sit down in Minneapolis's iconic Riverview Theater to watch this movie.

The Booksellers is a documentary about the New York rare books scene, though they expand throughout the country in looking for collectors.  The film is not specifically about used bookstores, the kind we clamor for right now across the country, though they do pop up.  Instead it's really focused on rare book dealers, the kind who might be able to trade in a first-edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland or autographed copies of a James Baldwin hardcover.  The film shows how this is a trade that has seen a decline in-person.  People don't read as much as they used to, and as a result there's less people who have books in their daily repertoire than there would have been even twenty years ago (sad fact-I was on a Zoom call a few weeks ago, and I rather foolishly asked "has anyone read anything good while on quarantine?" and it was sudden crickets, along with at least one "I haven't had time to" which was kind of funny because time is the one thing we all seem to be complaining is in excess right now...but I digress).  For those who do enjoy reading, they can get access to rare books through sites such as Amazon or eBay; again, anecdotally, my dad spent twenty years trying to find a rare Robert Heinlein short story collection he'd read as a youth, which I got him almost immediately after Amazon became a thing.  All-in-all, it's a story about a trade that's in decline, but one that still has a lot of interest for a select group of people, and the movie is spent exploring those people, and how they view the past & future of their industry.

You'll notice I keep throwing in personal anecdotes here, and there's a reason for that-The Booksellers only really works if you're a certain type of person, and a certain type of reader, the kind that will grin when they see themselves in certain comments & memories shared throughout the film.  This is a documentary for people who respond really personally to books, whether that's in shopping for them or collecting them or obviously reading them.  If you are someone who doesn't enjoy books, this will be incredibly boring to you, and if you're someone who doesn't enjoy finding new authors, or only wants to read what's popular right now, this isn't for you either (that's not meant to sound condescending-that's just how you're interpreting it).

I, personally, am fascinated by books and book culture, and I loved the documentary.  It's not a great film-there's no compelling argument being made through this, and in many ways it's more meant as a reflection than a documentary, but it's still lovely.  Looking at some of these cozy nooks covered in books, you feel at home.  You want to go into these libraries and warehouses (yes-there's a warehouse filled with rare books, and it's magnificent).  You will laugh at Fran Lebowitz's witticisms, and you will leave wanting to go read & buy more books.  If I had seen this, truly, in the Riverview, I can mentally think of at least five bookstores nearby I might have skipped over to afterward just to peruse.  I ended up instead poring through my library for a bit, reading snippets of novels I have read and back covers of ones I'm meaning to get to, and adding a few more books to my rotating "I need to read this pile."  And I longed for both movie theaters & bookstores, my two favorite oases, which is perhaps the best compliment I could give to such a film.