The Automat (2021)

(On Cable TV, November 2022) Considering that I have been mesmerized by the idea of automats ever since seeing them in older movies, you can say that TCM broadcasting the documentary feature The Automat was as close as it came to a film custom-made for me. Automats, for those who have yet to encounter the concept, were the upscale automated cafeterias in New York City and Philadelphia during the middle twentieth century—meticulously engineered to allow for economies of scale and no-frills service, they offered cold and hot food available for mere quarters, fed into machines that opened a door to let you bring the food back to your table. Automats were big business in the northeastern United States from the 1920s to the 1960s, and you periodically see them pop up in movies of the period. They all closed in the 1990s, victims of changing market forces (namely fast-food restaurants and inflation), although periodic attempts have been made to revive the concept at an age of digitalization, no-touch service and automated payment systems. In The Automat, director-producer Lisa Hurwitz puts her fascination for automats to good use, tracking down surviving members of the Automat Corporation’s last days, celebrity testimonials (Colin Powell and Ruth Bader-Ginsburg!), a terrific interview with Mel Brooks (who also contributes an original song and, hilariously, provides a meta-commentary on how the documentary is structured). It’s quite an impressive film—for its evocative nostalgia for something long gone, but also for the depths of expertise and first-hand testimonials it’s able to unearth. I loved every single second of it—and I can’t wait until someone brings back the automat for the twenty-first century.