Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape

2016

1h 32m

Documentary

List

60%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

The inventor of the audiotape digs through the past to figure out why they won't go away.

Read More

Read Less

Peacock

Fandango at Home

Prime Video

Watch Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape with a subscription on Prime Video, rent on Fandango at Home, or buy on Fandango at Home.

Leor Galil

Chicago Reader

[A] meandering tribute [that] leaves out many such important facts, largely dispensing with historical context in favor of poetic reminiscences about the outmoded format.

Nov 9, 2017

Full Review

Jill Wilson

Winnipeg Free Press

Like a mixtape made for you by an enthusiastic friend who's more concerned with cramming in all his favourite songs than making a cohesive work, it flits from topic to topic without delving deeply enough into any one area.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 13, 2018

Full Review

Jessica Baxter

Hammer to Nail

Documentary Mix-Tape is an enjoyable trip down memory lane - one that will certainly stir viewers of a certain age and educate young hipsters who are drawn to the world of analog.

Nov 16, 2017

Full Review

Sean Burns

Spliced Personality

What emerges is a not uninteresting notion of the hissy format democratizing music culture, allowing fans to actively program their own albums instead of passively accepting whatever the record company provided.

May 5, 2017

Full Review

Jason Gorber

Birth.Movies.Death.

Zack Taylor's documentary looks at tape culture and a format that refuses to die.

May 3, 2017

Full Review

Read all reviews

max m

Long-winded, repetitive film drenched in nostalgia, cycling between segments featuring the developer of the cassette Lou Ottens, famous names from the alternative scene like Henry Rollins & Thurston Moore reminiscing on the influence of the cassette on their music; punters, record stores and underground music events with many shots of hardware and performance. By the time the film has cycled through this rotation for the third time it starts to get dull pretty fast. The film weaves and meanders without any direction and you soon realize that there's not going to be any actual history about the rise and fall of the technology, just a lot of forgettable musing on the recent DIY resurgence of interest in the format. As Rollins appears on-screen for the fifth time with some more forgettable thoughts, followed by yet another clip of an underground live gig you realise you've seen pretty much all there is to see. The most interesting part of this documentary is hearing Ottens & his colleagues reminisce about the development of the cassette but that's just offered in small slices. This film is a whole lot of nostalgia but precious little insight.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Unfortunately, this documentary is unnecessarily slow. And a complete mess. It takes more than 30 minutes before any real substance is introduced. The creator of the cassette tape does not care about its cultural significance and actually calls the cassette "nothing special." And for some reason the producer decides to interview some jackass smoking pot while driving as his moron friend tries to forward the notion that "Britney Spears is punk". Strangely, the interviews conducted by the people who helped invent the cassette, seem to be speaking Dutch and no translation is provided! It is disjointed. In fact it's just a straight-up mess. The documentary lacks in overall historical discussion. It's more just random anecdotes without a cohesive thread. The redeeming point about this documentary is that it points out the need for decent documentary about the cassette tape to be done Sunday. Especially for the hip-hop and punk movements.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Zack Taylor

Director

Henry Rollins

Actor

Thurston Moore

Actor

Mike Watt

Actor

Damien Jurado

Actor

Ian MacKaye

Actor

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

100%

71%

Bill Nye: Science Guy

TRAILER

for Bill Nye: Science Guy

83%

%

Echoes of the Invisible

67%

33%

The Truth About Killer Robots

95%

70%

Notes on Blindness

100%

64%

Dream Big: Engineering Our World

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

The inventor of the audiotape digs through the past to figure out why they won't go away.

Director: Zack Taylor
Producer: Seth Smoot
Screenwriter: Georg Petzold, Zack Taylor
Production Co: Seagull and Birch, Fireglory Pictures
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 13, 2018
Runtime: 1h 32m

Most Popular at Home Now