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Film Fests & Special Screenings Movies & TV

Indie Film Spotlight: All Things Must Pass

ALL THINGS MUST PASS: THE RISE AND FALL OF TOWER RECORDS (Colin Hanks). 94 minutes.  Opens Friday (December 4). See listings. Rating: NNN


This is a decent documentary that could have used a more exacting editor.

Director Colin Hanks spends a little too much time celebrating the quirky individuality of Tower founder Russ Solomon and the tightly knit group of friends who built a tiny music shop into a global retail chain. Then bad finances and the collapse of the music industry brought it all crashing down. 

Once the film’s perspective moves out of the home office to explore the expansion of the larger music business with the arrival of MTV in the 80s and the compact disc in the 90s, it’s really engaging. Even the five or six minutes Hanks spends on the chain’s arrival in New York City (big space! cheap rent!) is charming and fun. 

The last reel tries a little too hard to put a positive spin on the chain’s spiral into bankruptcy between 2001 and 06, but Hanks so clearly loves these people that you can’t blame him for trying to find them a happy ending.   

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