‘Vinyl Nation’ Review: Doc Looks at Why a Dying Medium Became the 21st Century’s Physical Format of Choice

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticIs every day Record Store Day? It is for the several dozen interviewees of “Vinyl Nation,” a documentary that aims to not just explain the phenomenal LP resurgence of the last 15 years but break down any “High Fidelity” stereotypes about who’s driving the comeback.

Record collecting may be a massive cult, but it’s also a rainbow coalition of enthusiasts, the movie argues. Geekiness is next to godliness for the women, girls, LGBTQ folks and people of color who are joined in the film’s record-collecting cast by — sure — some pasty, middle-aged, Comic Book Guy-looking types.As an excellent piece of propaganda for the format, “Vinyl Nation” wants to portray vinyl hounds first and foremost as people who are maybe deeper into their feels than the rest of us — a diverse army of music fans who take to records’ corporeal qualities because the very element of touch triggers something spiritual in their hearts.

But for all that high-mindedness, the movie doesn’t avoid the OCD side of a certain subset of LP hounds. Directors Kevin Smokler and Christopher Boone have just about convinced you that vinyl is really a spiritual pursuit when Third Man Records head honcho Ben Blackwell comes along to explain why it’s important to find that Iggy Pop pressing out of Europe that has slightly different fine print on the sleeve credits than other variants.

One of the smart things the filmmakers did is leave famous musicians out of it. Blackwell is probably the biggest “celebrity” among the talking heads.