The Parking Lot Movie (2010)

February 19, 2025 11:53 AM

“On the rung of employment, it’s beneath taxidermy, it’s beneath bellhop… Bellhops get uniforms…”

This is a terrific, joyful documentary about a group of “insanely over-educated people working at a service sector job”, i.e. students and graduates from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, many from the departments of Anthropology or Philosophy. Most are eccentric slacker-intellectuals and they put in their time at this small, independent corner parking lot as attendants / ticket-takers. An oddball, entertaining and feel-good gem. One of the guys [I didn’t realize it - but they were all guys!] ended up later playing the bass for 'Yo La Tengo’.

This was the only movie directed by one Meghan Eckman. I wonder what other quirky wonders could she make, if this movie had became well-known.


Watch it for free on YouTube.

Highly recommended - 8/10.

7.0 on IMDb.

I discovered it via Kevin Kelly’s Livestream.

posted by growabrain (17 comments total)

As someone who grew up in Charlottesville, I approve this message.
posted by Atreides at 1:02 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]

(I did see this not long after it came out and enjoyed it - but don't have any other commentary to add)
posted by Atreides at 1:03 PM on February 19

Saw this a long time ago. Long enough that I do not remember much more than liking it.
posted by briank at 2:18 PM on February 19

I am so happy someone did a follow-up: 1986 Heavy Metal Parking Lot Where Are They Now 2006.
posted by RakDaddy at 6:39 PM on February 19

Oh, shoot. Wrong parking lot.
posted by RakDaddy at 9:19 PM on February 19

I happily have this one on DVD (and I don’t own more than 10 or so movies on DVD.) This is simply one of the best docs you’ll ever see.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:01 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Hell yes! Years ago my wife and I were super late to a party because we stumbled on this movie on tv and we got so engrossed.
posted by Ragged Richard at 10:23 AM on February 20

> As someone who grew up in Charlottesville, I approve this message.

Same. And spent a lot of time hanging out on the Corner.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:04 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

I visited, but did not hang out at the corner. My sister did. If you ever saw a group of goths chilling on the corner back in the 90s, you saw her with her friends.
posted by Atreides at 7:53 AM on February 21

My sister was a goth hanging out on the Corner in the late 80s. Maybe their paths crossed.
posted by gingerbeer at 8:16 AM on February 21 [1 favorite]

I have a lot of nostalgia for college town jobs like these, although the ones that I did usually required more physical activity. Some of the people are pretty interesting and some are marginally employable and quite a few fit in both categories.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:02 AM on February 21

This was probably the mid-90s, but you never know. She was usually with GoPaul and Andy, who went on to have the somewhat successful Goth band, Belle Morte. And on look up, apparently Andy turned out to be a pretty awful person.
posted by Atreides at 11:23 AM on February 21

OK, I'm curious: what's the Corner?
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:59 PM on February 21

The Corner is a stretch of businesses that run opposite to the grounds at the University of Virginia and traditionally was a place students (and some locals) hung out, got food, visited used bookstore, etc... It's not a joke anymore, but for the longest time a popular local bagel chain, Bodo's, had talked about opening a location there, but it took years between the chain leasing the spot to when it actually opened. Especially before the advent of cars, the Corner was the closet place in walking distance from the university and was the route one would take if they were heading to the downtown/traditional main street area of the city (granted, maybe a mile walk or more?).

It even has a wikipedia entry.

The reason it's being discussed here is that the aforementioned parking lot is one of the few places to park at the Corner other than finding a spot on the street or going to a parking garage around the...corner.
posted by Atreides at 1:22 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]

The Corner is a stretch of several commercial/mixed-use blocks along University Ave on the north side of U.Va. Grounds—it's a lot of coffee shops and restaurants (all bars in Virginia being restaurants) that are popular both with students, faculty, and staff from the University and the hospital. The lot in the movie is pretty centrally located, and there's very little on-street parking, so if you drove to the corner you would probably end up there.

I worked and hung out around there frequently while the movie was being made, and I was friends with a few of the guys. (I am in fact "in" the movie, riding a bike in the background of a few shots). There was a decent amount of overlap between the lot employees and the bus drivers in UTS, in both the "slacker-intellectual" sense and the literal sense of at least one person had a CDL-B. The premiere was a lot of fun; it was a little disorienting when it aired on PBS and a lot of people whose work I enjoyed and/or looked up to started talking about this kooky little movie.

Man, it was a simpler time. I haven't watched it in years, but maybe I should soon. And I should probably reach out to some folks I haven't spoken to in years.
posted by thecaddy at 1:25 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]

At some point maybe after I left high school, the city put in a new parking garage near the Corner, but when I was in high school and driving in to buy records at the used records store (I bought so much vinyl there) and hang out and smoke clove cigarettes with my friends (I regret nothing) this particular parking lot was really the only place to park there. I also have fond memories of the University Cafeteria, which wasn't owned by the University, just a private cafeteria-style restaurant, that as a kid I thought was a huge treat. You could pick your own dessert!

This is now the Charlottesville nostalgia thread.
posted by gingerbeer at 6:48 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]

Down on the Corner
posted by gingerbeer at 7:42 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]