Rating: 6 out of 10
The Parking Lot Movie is about a corner parking lot behind a strip of bars and restaurants near the University of Virgina campus. More to the point, this documentary is about the men who work there.
Looking at the job and the experience through the eyes of 20+ years worth of employees, we learn that it takes a special kind of person to appreciate and do well the not-much-to-do-ness job of being a parking lot attendant. Some say the rude customers and ample down time allowed them to reflect on their place in the world; others--namely anthropology students--think of working the small booth as field work.
What they all have in common is a disdain for their customers' owners (the customers being the cars). This revulsion for snotty sorority girls, wasted frat boys and their condescending parents (who drive ever increasingly rotund SUVs) seems to increase every day, every hour while on the job.
As strange as it sounds, The Parking Lot Movie is a love letter to a parking lot and the its owner who does his level best to instill in his employees a feeling that they have power over this little paved corner of the world. What The Parking Lot Movie does best though is serve as a reminder to not judge a book by its cover--people with simple jobs are rarely simple people.
