Cultural historians, collectors, and various celebrity obsessives, including Tom Hanks and John Mayer, launch us into the bittersweet moment when a beloved-but-dying technology, the typewriter, faces extinction.
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.
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 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.
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A love letter to the outdated, be it typewriters, thank you notes, mom and pop repair shops, or creativity that doesn't start with turning a computer on first.
