The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Alan blows a lot of time on this film lamenting that he wishes he'd spent his life being a family man rather than being some guy on his own buying a lot of records. I don't want to judge too harshly, but it seems to me that a possible reason the guy has lucked out is he is both whiny and domineering judging from the way he conducts interviews, he doesn't seem to like other people in his life talking much or getting too much attention, again going by his interviewing style and how the film is edited.The collectors interviewed all seem charming, relatively happy and very quirky to me and some had cool anecdotes. I would have enjoyed this film far more if that's what comprised the whole film, rather than the 'I'm in a hobby that's for freaks/ help me I think I have OCD/ what have I done with my life' ramblings. Also the scene where Alan tries to scam on a female collector by trying to seduce her with an elevator muzak version of Over the Rainbow is as others have pointed out, very creepy.Daniel Richler and Don McKellar look like they have great collections, it would be great if they were in the film for more than 30 seconds each.

Like Harvey Pekar, but wish he was more of a whiny, uninteresting looser? The real Harvey Pekar is in this film for comparison, so you can see for yourself.The subjects being interviewed would have been far more interesting in the hands of an interviewer with some empathy, and who didn't have the same obsession. As it is, he lacks the necessary distance from the subject to provide a decent overview. There is definitely a documentary to be made about this subject, but for the most part this film could be used by someone else as a template for how not to make that documentary.Several points taken away for a breathtakingly cringe-worthy "girlfriend interview" and end titles that sacrifice readability for "style".

Finally caught the documentary about insaneo record collectors, which since I am an insaneo record collector myself is of interest. There's lots of hilarious stuff, like the guy who is trying to get every record ever made in 'the world' but never thought of, like, Asia; or how about cinema-theorist-for-hire Geoff Pevere admitting that he threw 2000 records in a dumpster because he couldn't stand the thought of anyone else owning them. There's also lots of confrontational stuff where Zwieg, quite reasonably, tries to get these people to face up to what idiots they are being. A couple of them get very far out. But whatever's going along up top, way back in the distance somewhere you can hear this droning 80s infomercial music which I guess is supposed to be the movie's soundtrack. In a movie at least tangentially about music, is this some kind of bizarre attempt at irony? Docked a notch for that lazy sh*t.

I really enjoyed Ivan Haffenden's portrayal of Zack X. McBuick MCMLIX--and found his performance as strong, nay, stronger, than that of James Coburn playing Britt in The Magnificent Seven (1960). Take the following line, for example: "Nobody throws my mint copy of Like Long Hair by Paul Revere & the Raiders at me and says it originally came out on Jerden. Nobody." The tension is palpable.The discussions of the relative merits of analog versus digital provided new insight into the rich and complex world of mindless polemic.Also worthy of note were the many antique cars and musical instruments that dotted this cinematic landscape. I was especially taken by the 1965 Studebaker Lark (the built-in vanity kit was an innovative feature!) and what appeared to be a Mellotron MkII of similar vintage.Overall, I give this picture high marks both for content and neat stuff.