Pretty damned near brilliant. Director Zweig interviews, nay - psycho-analyzes, and CROSS-EXAMINES - record collectors in an effort to understand the roots of his own obsessiveness, loneliness and feelings of self-loathing. Among the collectors he's interviews are Harvey Pekar, Guy Madden and Bruce La Bruce, though nobody is identified in the film. Make no mistake, some of the collectors put under his microscope are quite sick, more hoarders than collectors, allowing their obsessions to paint their lives into a frighteningly cluttered corner. Though - as a collector myself - it could be rather painful to watch at times, and though the directors soul-searching occasionally wanders a bit too far, this is really a MUST SEE for any collector!

Some hobbies just seem to attract completists. Here is one man's story about the consequences of obsession. Alan Zweig is a long time record collector, to the point that he has sacrificed other goals to make room for his hobby. The most notable of these compromises is his admission that he feels that the fact that he doesn't have a wife or kids is related to his collecting.I've collected different things all my life, so I felt like I could relate to some degree. The movie made me think about the nature of collecting things. Do we do it to fill a void in our lives? Alan makes some very good, very true points about how the mind of the collector works and where it can take you. He tells one story about getting rid of a particular record that he thought he was ready to part with, but has since regretted nearly every day. This is what you go through when you let your interests have too much influence in your life.Some of the different things I've collected: Star Wars, G.I. Joe, and Transformers action figures (preschool years); comic books (middle school years); records (high school and college); and downloading Mp3's and Disney collector pins (adulthood). I would also put movies in this category, even though I don't collect them in the traditional sense of buying them and keeping a stack of dvds. Watching them and writing IMDb reviews is along the same lines as what I used to do when I would get a new record or comic, digest it, and then fit it into a system of organization.Each time I have been a serious collector, I decided at some point to get rid of the majority of my collection and only keep what was really special. I was then able to move on to other things. Apparently, the hardcore collectors in this doc have never gone through that "flushing out" process. Also, I have never allowed my hobbies to become so all-consuming that they kept me from other goals, such as getting a degree or getting married. So I guess I have not experienced the depth of obsession that some of the collectors in this movie have lived through. But that doesn't mean I haven't been close. Thank goodness I don't have any regrets as deep as what Alan expresses. But I do wish I had used my time better and prepared more for the future. Seeing a little bit of myself in this sad story helps remind me I have to keep focused on what is really important.

i wish the show had had real audiophiles instead of who they interviewed. i've been at it as long as any of the people shown. i'm a collector and love to play them but the folks interviewed showed no real sense of quality in the way they kept their records or cleaned them and the stereo gear shown is total junk..i invite the shows producers to interview myself so people could see a more sane quality way to enjoy vinyl in the way 99% of the world never knew existed on this medium. my own personal collection is at least 15,000 records 5000 45's and 2000 reel to reels and a sound system that displays their total quality.

Excellent, excellent film about record collectors from the perspective of a film maker AND record collector. What's so unique about Alan Zweig's documentation, is that he includes his own person in it, sometimes filming a location and himself in a mirror, or speaking directly to the audience about his private and personal thoughts. The other record collectors portrayed in this 110 minutes movie are beyond belief; can you imagine someone seriously claiming to collect EVERY song ever made? Or being able to tell the tracklists of ALL of his ten-thousands of albums by heart? "Vinyl"will blow your mind beyond the subject of sheer record collecting. It's a study on human obsessions in general.