review for I Need That Record!: The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store on AllMovie

One of the best thing about the movie High Fidelity is how it documented the culture of the geeky record collector with impressive and hilarious accuracy, and if you ever wondered what guys like Rob, Barry and Dick would do if they didn't have a record shop in which to spend their days, Brendan Toller's documentary I Need That Record!: The Death (Or Possible Survival) Of The Independent Record Store presents a witty but sobering look at how the sad state of the music business is helping to strangle shops catering to those who love the stuff most passionately. Toller's film often has the feel of a sermon being preached to the converted, but it also illuminates the ills of the music business that are hurting small retailers with intelligence, detail and admirable concision (including Big Box retailers selling popular titles as loss leaders, overpriced titles from major labels, the rise of legal and illegal online music distribution and big labels run by businessmen with no interest in or knowledge of popular music). The film wisely doesn't point to a single villain, but it does profile a large number of victims, including store keepers who have lost their businesses, musicians who are looking for new ways to reach their audiences, and fans who whom a good record shop was not just a place to buy music but a hangout where they met friends and talked about an art form that gave their lives meaning. The animated sequences go on just long enough to wear out their welcome and some of Toller's interview subjects can speak with clarity about both art and commerce (such as Ian MacKaye and Glenn Branca) while others don't have much to say beyond "this album is cooler than that one," but nearly everyone in I Need That Record! addresses the camera with a genuine passion, and if nothing else it makes the point that any business that doesn't care about alienating customers who value their product this much is clearly being run by the wrong people.