Hot Docs Reaction: THE PARKING LOT MOVIE

As I watched THE PARKING LOT MOVIE, I couldn’t help but think back on Tyler Durden and how he saw so much potential being squandered on people pumping gas and waiting tables…something tells me, he’d include parking lot attendants in that bracket. Indeed, the men of THE PARKING LOT MOVIE all seem to have so much more to offer the world than being able to mind our cars for a few hours, but unfortunately this doc doesn’t help their case.

This doc tells the story of nearly twenty parking lot attendants. It details their philosophical nature, illustrates the abuse and absurdity they have to endure, and details just how much attention people in the service industry pay to their patrons. Unfortunately it does so in an amazingly thin and scattershot manner.

There are people in this movie I quite enjoyed meeting. People like Dan Moesley who has gone on to be a professor of philosophy at James Mdison University, John Lindaman who actually met his future wife when she was a customer at the parking lot, and James McNew – the bassist for Yo La Tengo, who also at one time minded a parking lot. While I enjoyed meeting them, I didn’t nearly get to know them half as well as I would like. Their stories are buried under a dog-pile of more than a dozen other raving surly attendants.

They come off as crusty, angry, and suffering from delusions of grandeur. Think Kevin Smith’s CLERKS without the witty dialogue. It’s a shame, because I believe there was a great movie to be shown here – unfortunately that story has been stymied by poor execution.

THE PARKING LOT MOVIE plays tonight – 6:30pm at Cumberland 3, and again on Monday May 3rd – 11:45pm at The Bloor Cinema.