All Things Must Pass

All Things Must Pass (2015) is Colin Hanks' documentary about Tower Records, free to watch online on iFILM. What began as a record rack in a Sacramento drugstore grew into 200 stores across thirty countries and five continents.

At the heart of it is Russ Solomon, the shaggy, foul-mouthed founder who turned selling records into a way of life. Former clerks describe a place where staff got hired off the street, partied as hard as the bands, and somehow built a billion-dollar business by 1999. Dave Grohl, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and Questlove drop in to explain what the shop meant to them. Then 2006 came, and the whole thing collapsed.

Hanks spent seven years on his directing debut, and it shows: this is less a crash report than a love letter to people whose job was their whole identity. It lands hardest for anyone who grew up flipping through bins and misses the smell of a record store on a Saturday. Stream All Things Must Pass (2015) online on iFILM.