The documentary film “24×36: A Movie about Movie Posters” is, indeed, a movie about movie posters. When I saw this on iTunes I said to myself, “Self, can they possibly make an entire 72 minute documentary about movie posters?” so I had to rent it to find out. Turns out, no. No they cannot fill a 72 minute documentary about movie posters.
Less than half the film is about the history, composition, and style of official movie posters. That has some marginal interest to me and they trace a firm route between the artistic, painterly posters of the past and the “throw the heads of our actors on a one-sheet in Photoshop and call it a day” style posters that came into fashion in the 90s.
But the majority of the movie is about fan-made or semi-professional artists who make movie posters either just because they can or because they want to sell them to collectors. And… well… at least I can say that I didn’t know this was a thing people did… so I learned something, I guess. But… well.. that’s not interesting enough to me and I’m the schmo who rented a whole movie about movie posters.
So the movie is probably for the fans, the artists, and the collectors but I doubt any of them would find anything new in this doc. It’s a film about a niche market for a niche market who probably don’t need to see a film about themselves. Not sure anyone else would really care.
Score: 68