California Typewriter

There are two ready-made audiences for this doc and both will benefit from seeing it.

I enjoyed this film about typewriters so much that I feel guilty writing this review on a computer instead of a Smith Corona.

Suffusing the documentary is an almost religious reverence for this mundane and obsolete mechanical apparatus. Not that it's undeserved.

The best thing is that Nichol doesn't adopt a luddite stance. He doesn't try to impart the evils of technology, at least not much.

Although the film would benefit from a more reined-in focus, "California Typewriter" is a love letter to an antiquated device - one that retains its charm and utility even in the digital age.

A rich, thoughtful, meticulously crafted tapestry about the evolution of the beloved writing machine for purists, history buffs, collectors and others fighting to preserve or re-embrace analog life.

California Typewriter is a nostalgic documentary that will make you think about what life was like in the days before computers, smart phones, and the internet.

The questions this documentary raises, in between all the human stories and history it teaches, will definitely haunt you as the credits roll.

A love story that clacks!

If California Typewriter slightly overstays its welcome, as Nichol pushes past a natural end point to make the case for manual typewriters as the new vinyl... well, that seems somehow appropriate, too. Love has a way of blinding us to reality, after all.

... a retro-fun salute to the analog age and a thoughtful consideration of how digital technology affects our lives.

A love letter to the outdated, be it typewriters, thank you notes, mom and pop repair shops, or creativity that doesn't start with turning a computer on first.