Saving Brinton

Zahs, a genial obsessive, is a lot of fun, and so is the movie.

Saving Brinton loses focus a few times, but its noble heart will keep the viewer engaged. Zahs is an affable chap, and his love of history is remarkable. His quest to save Brinton’s collection is an enjoyable one that will leave the audience happy and with a deeper affection for the way these films were shown back in the day.

Saving Brinton is an endearing, affectionate documentary, an examination not so much of film exhibition pioneer Frank Brinton and how his life's work was saved but of the genial and humane eccentric who did the saving.

The doc is as much a profile of its passionate central figure as an account of Brinton's importance to the history of cinema.

The trouble is that despite how earnest and committed Mr. Zahs appears to be, the story of what’s in the collection might be more be more fascinating than the man who’s collected it.