What Truman Capote did for non-fiction - imposing a narrative tone and form on works that had mostly been a recording of facts - films like "Hoop Dreams," or "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" or "Grizzly Man," did for documentaries; i.e., they raised the bar and imposed a narrative structure on the material.
Unfortunately, as fascinating as the world of rare book dealers may be, The Booksellers seemed disorganized, often confusing without any real narrative thread. While people may recognize Gay Talese or Fran Leibowitz, people are often interviewed with no caption telling us who they are, what their job title is, and these people were, for the most part, not very interesting. The profession might attract unusual people, but the film doesn't have the "Herzog" - that skill at highlighting those idiosyncrasies in the subjects that make a documentary especially watchable.
Review of The Booksellers
