‘The Automat’ Review: A Documentary That Serves Up Tasty Nostalgia
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticLong ago, in a distant and far away America (you know, the ancient days of 2018 and 2019), independent films could make their mark at the megaplex, and some of them could be documentaries. Remember the glory days of “RGB” (total domestic gross: $14 million), “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” ($22.8 million), “Three Identical Strangers” ($12 million), “They Shall Not Grow Old” ($18 million), and “Apollo 11” ($9 million)?I’m not saying that Lisa Hurwitz’s “The Automat,” had it been released in those now possibly vanquished days, could have joined the commercial company of those films (though maybe it could have). But when I caught this marvelous documentary at Film Forum in New York, the audience for it was ecstatic.