Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, December 17: THE SPACE INVADERS: IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME
Jeff Von Ward’s exploration of 1980s video games and their nostalgic collectors debuted last year at fan events and has continued to screen at various conventions since. FilmBuff now makes the doc available via Xbox, PlayStation, and Amazon Instant Video.
As indicated by the film’s subtitle, Von Ward’s film is largely concerned with nostalgia and less interested in providing a comprehensive overview of the rise and fall of the arcade. The latter receives an initial, compressed treatment, but is otherwise sparingly weaved through the reflections of his various interviewees, men who so fondly remember playing Galaga, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong as kids that they’ve spent their time and money as adults purchasing old standup game consoles so they can live out their SILVER SPOONS dream of having a home arcade. There’s a certain charm to the ’80s style title treatment and to the archival footage of the STARCADE! game show and fearmongering period TV news reports about the ills of the arcade, but the bulk of Von Ward’s film consists of static, somewhat rough-looking, show and tell interviews relating the joys and occasional perils of obsessive collecting. Still, there’s no denying that viewers of a certain age will share similar childhood experiences with these subjects, and that will be just about enough to make this otherwise workmanlike look at recapturing erstwhile youthful pursuits worthwhile.
what (not) to doc 