On a recent trip to the local shopping district near my house, I noticed that a staple of the neighborhood–the local movie rental store–had closed. It wasn’t a Blockbuster or a Hollywood Video, it was a true local shop with three locations in the Somerville and Cambridge area. Instead of housing just the typical movie rental store fare, this store had an extensive collection of films by diverse directors, a vast foreign and independent film selection and a section of excellent staff picks. You could stop in to pick up the latest box office hit, but the store was...