Reel Life is the real deal-- a wild collection of every kind of film for people who really love cinema. Sure it hards to navigate, sometimes requiring Twister-like feats to pass fellow browsers... More

Reel Life is the real deal-- a wild collection of every kind of film for people who really love cinema. Sure it hards to navigate, sometimes requiring Twister-like feats to pass fellow browsers in the narrow, creaking aisles. The filing system is somewhat archaic and the number of titles relatively finite, forcing us all to bring back movies the next day! But Reel is a mass of great film: blockbusters and indies, foreign and Hollywood, rare and run of the mill, kitschy and haunting, something for all tastes. There's cult stuff you've never heard of and bootlegs and pornos that no megastore would ever dare to stock. It's place where VHS and DVD share their glory. There are Reel Life's in both Park Slope and Williamsburg. Other vaults of film treasures? -Evergreen Video, 37 Carmine St, NYC -Kim's Video -Photoplay Video, 933 Manahattan Ave, Greenpoint, Brooklyn -Two Boots Video, 44 Ave A, NYC
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Much like Starbucks v. Everyone, indie video/DVD rental places have long been waging a war against big guns Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, and now the new threat of direct-to-your-home Netflix.... More

Much like Starbucks v. Everyone, indie video/DVD rental places have long been waging a war against big guns Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, and now the new threat of direct-to-your-home Netflix. Reel Life South takes a typical indie attitude to the matter: They suck. We're authentic. If you don't like it, f** off; who needs you anyway? This can be good or bad - depending on whether you're with them or against them... I try to be with them, but of course am inevitably left feeling unaccepted and secretly laughed at. Of course, this is because I am neurotic about acceptance, whereas they adopt the opposite attitude. They are not above carrying mainstream titles - be confident you can find your latest Vin Diesel flick on their shelves. But know you must be confident enough to stare down the two signs with arrows that indicate "real" flims (the foreign/indie/classic-of-film-school-classes scetion) versus the crap films (aka anything mainstream) and face them holding your copy of "Just Married," knowing they are invisibly shaking their heads in disdain. They have a great selection of foreign films and hard-to-find ones by academically lauded directors (eg - Roman Polanski, but not necessarily Ron Howard). And as said, they've got most of the new major releases. Some of the less-popular films are, however, only available on VHS. My girlfriend finds them more agreeable - she even jokes with them when we go in, at which I wring my hands and think, "God - they must think we're SO lame!" But I think she's got it right - if you go there enough, and talk with them enough, and manage to convince them you're one of them, everything's hunky-dory. If you're like me, don't worry - they'll respectfully let you walk out with your copy of Notting Hill before scorning your pitiful, mainstream existence.
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