You know the film. It’s a film you have never heard of. The cast might be composed of actors you know and love or complete unknowns. You stumble across it on streaming and wonder if it will be worth two hours of you time. This series will be devoted to reviewing films like these, the strange items that pop up when you are looking for a flick on the streaming service of your choice. This is “We Found It On Streaming”
FILM: Back to the Drive-In
Release Date: June 6, 2022
Run Time: 105 Minutes.
Streaming Service(s): Amazon Prime Video, Tubi
Rating: Not Rated
I was kid during the waning days of the drive-in. When I was younger, there was no less than six drive-in movie theaters withing driving distance of where I lived, seven if you counted the drive-in theater that showed pornographic films (I am not lying. It was named Oak Hill in Moosic, Pennsylvania. The local DJ’s jokingly referred to it as “Stroke Hill.”)
It was at a drive-in where I saw the first Superman film when I was seven or eight. It was probably because it was so cheap–my dad snuck in a cooler full of RC Cola into the place, which had to be a no-no. If it wasn’t for that early life-changing event, FilmBuff Online might have had a different Comic Book Film Editor.
But over the years, the drive-in fell out of favor. As cineplexes and multiplexes took over the country, and as real estate costs rose and rose, the drive-ins started to disappear, replaced by shopping malls and industrial parks. Soon, the once vital entertainment venue was holding on by the skin of its teeth.
Writer/Director April Wright saw this, and made Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie in 2013, documenting the fate of these theates, including one of the seven I grew up near–Garden Drive-In.
Then something strange happened–a worldwide pandemic. Either unable or unwilling to see a film in an enclosed movie theater, the drive-in experienced a brief resurgence. You can finally get out of the house and see a movie–in the comfort of your own car.
Wright revisits the drive-in with the aptly named Back to the Drive-In to ask the question of whether or not these theaters are in better shape after the pandemic than they were before.
Wright visits eleven drive-in theaters around the country. They are:
- Field of Dreams, Liberty City, OH, opened 2007
- Quasar, Valley, NE, opened 2021
- Bengies, Middle River, MD, opened 1956
- Greenville, Greenville, NY, opened 1959, reopened 2015
- Coyote, Fort Worth, TX, opened 2013
- Transit, Lockport, NY opened 1952
- Wellfleet, Wellfleet, MA, opened 1957
- Harvest Moon, Gibson City, IL, opened 1954, reopened 1989
- Galaxy, Ennis, TX, opened 2004
- Mission Tiki, Montclair, CA, opened 1957
- Brazos, Grandbury, TX, opened 1952
This gives us a good representative sample of theaters across the country. Most share many similarities, but they are still a diverse lot. There is a theater set up where you can see the city skyline behind the screen, another was built in the owner’s back yard. Some have been passed down in the same family for generations, others were started by young couples who are the first-generation owners. But most all of them share one thing in common–a love of movies and a love for the drive-in.
Wright stays out of the way and lets her subjects tell their story. She visits each of them in the morning and follows them through their working day. Along the way, we learn how they became drive-in owners, the struggles they face in their profession, and what it takes to keep their drive-ins running.
As such, there are a lot of “talking head’ shots. But intercut is the extensive use of drone camera footage. Having attended drive-ins as a customer, I never realized how expansive these venues are. I can tell you that shopping malls have replaced them all I want, but the drone footage really puts this into perspective.
She also directs for the most impact. Drive-ins face the same problems most businesses face–staffing issues, supply-chain problems, and angry and aggressive customers. But Wright make the point that the movie studios stream policies also are affecting the way the drive-ins do their business. Some drive-ins business plans revolved around showing films after they left brick and mortar theaters. With films entering streaming so soon after their theatrical run, this is no longer an option for these drive-ins.
One of the most powerful segments of the documentary comes towards the end. Wright interviews a customer of Mission Tiki, who beams that this was the second time that week he visited the drive in. The customer goes on about how much he loves the place an hopes that it will be able to go on for a while. She then cuts to Mission Tiki’s owner, who reveals that he has already sold the location to a developer of an industrial park for more money that he would make in 25 years of showing movies.
That would be enough of a gut punch for most directors, but Wright goes back to the original customer. It seems obvious that she was the one to break the news of the sale of the drive-in to him. Tears welling up in his eyes, the customer tries to work through his loss on screen. It is a manipulative bit of directing, but effective, nonetheless. In that series of scenes, she summed up the entire point of the movie. She shows the people who love the drive-in and the financial realities that are causing the drive-in to die. I thought it was brilliant.
There are a lot of documentaries about drive-ins. As a matter of fact, this isn’t the first such film that we reviewed. And it might not be the last. Back to the Drive-In sells itself as a look at the business post-COVID. But what it really is is a celebration of the people who love drive-ins and pour their heart and souls into keeping them alive. If you are a fan of films, pop culture history or would like to know more about the drive-in, I highly recommend this film.
Have you found a film on streaming that you’d like us to look at? Leave it in the comments and it might appear in a future installment of this feature.
