The Booksellers - 2019 - 6/10
Mixed bag for me, ultimately a disappointment.
Documentary of New York book dealers tends to focus on the rarefied strata.
Sellers of books that go for five, six, seven figures.
That excludes the majority of souls who actually buy books, as well as the group that build private collections.
The lack of onscreen documentation is astonishing. Interviewed subjects are given first names only (last names appear in the credits). Others show no names.
The narrative is jumpy and haphazard, and the editing is noticeable fade to blacks.
A few dealers peddle more commonplace titles, though they oversee huge warehouses.
There are lamentations of the demise of the heyday of used bookshops.
Barely a mention of Mr Bezos, nothing of his company, nor of eBay.