Skip to main content

All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records review

By


From its establishment in 1960, Tower Records was a uniquely American retailer that married a counter culture attitude with a Wall Street business sense. The once omnipresent powerhouse was more than just a place to buy the latest Taylor Swift offering. Tower represented something bigger and far more immediate, a company that appeared to extend a middle finger in the face of traditional business logic while becoming one of the biggest music chains in the world. Its hard to imagine but Tower had its humble beginnings in a small-town drugstore and eventually became to many the heart and soul of the music world, and a powerful force in the music industry.

In 1999, Tower Records made $1 billion. In 2006, the company filed for bankruptcy. What went wrong? Everyone thinks they know what killed Tower Records: The Internet. But that's not the story. 'All Things Must Pass' is a feature documentary film examining this iconic company's explosive trajectory, tragic demise, and legacy forged by its rebellious founder Russ Solomon.

Hanks executes his film with a meandering pace that allows his subjects to casually present the oral history of Tower Records. The pacing of ATMP feels like an afternoon at your local record store... just leisurely sifting through the bins of vinyl in search of that forgotten gem. The former employees are the films hidden gems, the people behind the scenes are the reason this humble company grew to such heights and the reason this film is compelling. The story could be enough to carry a film like this but the people telling it are the reason this film more than just works.

If you even have a passing interest in the record industry this one will be more than satisfying. My wife has only purchased four albums in her life and she loved this film. In all honesty the film is only ostensibly about music. The film in its heart is about a group of outsiders who found their place in the world, bohemian clerks who inadvertently helped to define the musical tastes of a generation.  

All Things Must Pass is currently playing in limited release and opens on 11/20 in Phoenix. For more information check the films website.




Comments

Unknown said…
I worked at a Tower Records in 1983-85. Those were the days. Taylor Swift wasn't even born yet!
November 17, 2015 at 10:45 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Explaining the Ending of No Country for Old Men

By
No Country for Old Men is a tense, spare, and philosophical thriller that upends traditional narrative expectations. While it contains the elements of a crime drama—drug deals, hitmen, shootouts—it refuses to follow a conventional path. By the time the film ends, the central conflict seems unresolved, the villain walks away, and the protagonist we’ve been following disappears offscreen. To understand the film’s ending, one must look beyond plot and consider its themes: fate, violence, moral decay, and the erosion of order in the modern world. The Narrative Setup The story begins with Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a Vietnam veteran who discovers a drug deal gone wrong in the Texas desert and makes off with $2 million in cash. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a remorseless hitman, is sent to retrieve the money. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a weary and introspective lawman, tries to make sense of the violence unfolding around him. At first glance, the film appears to set up a c...
1 comment
Read More

Explaining the Ending of MULHOLLAND DRIVE

By
David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive remains one of the most haunting and enigmatic films ever made. It operates like a riddle that refuses to be solved, luring the viewer into a world where time, memory, and identity dissolve into one another. What begins as a mysterious, almost whimsical Hollywood fairy tale gradually transforms into a psychological nightmare. By the end, it’s clear that what we’ve been watching is not a mystery to be unraveled but an emotional landscape, the mind of a woman caught between fantasy and despair. The film tells the story of two women, Betty Elms and Rita, whose lives intertwine after Rita survives a car crash and loses her memory. Betty, a bright and optimistic aspiring actress freshly arrived in Los Angeles, takes her in. Together, they embark on an investigation into Rita’s identity, which unfolds like a noir detective story bathed in dreamlike light. Everything about this world feels heightened: Betty’s charm, the coincidence of events, and the ease with w...
1 comment
Read More

Explaining the Ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey

By
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a masterpiece of science fiction cinema, known for its ambitious themes, pioneering visual effects, and cryptic storytelling. The film culminates in one of the most enigmatic endings in cinematic history, as astronaut Dave Bowman undergoes a surreal journey through a cosmic gateway and is transformed into a new lifeform known as the "Star Child." To understand the ending, one must consider the film’s structure, symbolism, and philosophical inquiries into human evolution, technology, and transcendence. The Journey to the Infinite The final act begins after Dave Bowman disconnects HAL 9000, the malfunctioning AI that had killed his crew. Alone on the spaceship Discovery One , Bowman continues toward Jupiter, following a signal emitted from a monolith discovered on the Moon earlier in the film. These monoliths—rectangular, black, and featureless—are central to the film’s themes. Each appearance marks a leap in human evolution:...
Post a Comment
Read More