What I miss most about the video store

There is something deeply tedious about browsing from my couch, clicking right, right, right to see what else the algorithm imagines I’ll like. Were I doing my high school movie exploration today, I would never come across titles as different as Ed Wood and The Bells of St. Mary’s, or Down with Love and The Thin Red Line. I would never burrow that deep in the digital rabbit hole.

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Gone is the chance meetcute with some hitherto unknown flick, the “Wait, what was that?” on the way up to the checkout counter. Comparison is difficult — there is no Netflix counterpart to holding two VHS boxes next to each other, studying the back matter for some definitive insight. Video store picks were a commitment built on meticulous scrutiny and schedule, so a movie that started slow or otherwise failed to immediately appeal could not be lightly abandoned. Now, the ability to instantly drop anything I don’t like is a constant temptation. I can click “back” at any moment, though more often I never click “play” in the first place.

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