Doc Watch: Cultural Touchstones

OTHER MUSIC (B+) - A charming documentary unspools the history of a beloved record store in Lower Manhattan and trails along in 2016 as the middle-aged owners and their wives and employees dismantle their little haven known as Other Music and close the doors for good. This one falls squarely in the pocket of that '90s and '00s heyday of the CD industry, a topic that has been explored previously via the documentary "All Things Must Pass," which chronicled the dismantling of Tower Records. (We never ran across Other Music on trips to New York, though we did discover a little hole in the wall called Rockit Scientist, which also is now only a memory.)

A similar but more indie vibe arises here among the audiophiles who scour the bins for just the right release from that band you've never heard of, tipped off by a diverse crew of obsessive clerks who penned little handwritten staff recommendations amid the displays. This is a loving portrait of a culture of hipster nerds. The operation championed underdog bands like Vampire Weekend, Apples in Stereo and the National (lead singer Matt Berninger tells a few stories) and featured feverish in-store performances in a cramped space. Talking heads include Regina Spektor (who was intimidated by the place) and the always-welcome Jason Schwartzman, a suave fanboy. Depeche Mode's Martin Gore and TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe also pay heartfelt respect to the co-owners and the gang who carried out their vision for a couple of decades.

Directors Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller pace this perfectly (over 83 minutes) and tell a touching tale of a certain moment in time that probably can't be reproduced.

ONE-CHILD NATION (B+) - Nanfu Wang is co-director (with Jialing Zhang) and the star of this documentary that explores China's decades-long one-child policy, which led to the abandonment and slaughter of legions of fetuses and baby girls. The personal nature of Wang's story -- she and her co-director survived the policy -- can distract at times from the facts grounding the polemic.

Some of the visuals can be striking. A few of the talking heads are powerful. ("It was like fighting a war," one says. "Death was inevitable.") Wang talks to midwives and family planners, as well as leaders of the village where she was raised. This documentary tries to balance the personal (Wang is now living in America and pregnant) with the dialectical, and that tension never gets reconciled.  As a result, a potentially great film suffers in the process. (Streaming on PBS.)