Stale Popcorn and Sticky Floors is an entertaining documentary about early exploitation movies. A variety of actresses and movie-makers are interviewed, providing some insight into a past era.
Some shots from the movies are provided, with boobs, but it seems that they are taken from VHS masters. This is acceptable because this is a documentary, and also because there are uncensored boobs. Some documentaries censor the footage.
I have seen some of the movies, like Street Trash, so I enjoyed learning about the process of filming and later distribution. Every movie that I did not see is going to be purchased because of how interesting the documentary makes them. I really mean that. I am buying every single title that I have not yet seen.
I was fortunate to have seen a couple of documentaries about 42nd Street and how important the theaters were for this class of film. While some movies, like Re-animator, were more widely released, it’s still interesting how that tiny section of New York City cultivated the indie film community. I was too young to have been part of it. This documentary only references that part of cinema history. You will have to see something dedicated to that subject.
The style of this documentary is cordial and down-to-earth. You get to see people talk about myriad topics in an off-the-cuff manner, and their words are given lots of breathing room. If this were a more polished documentary, the talks would be cut up and the pacing would be artificial.
I liked this so much that I am going to watch it again as soon as I finish typing this review.