CinePhillyist Reviews... Be Kind Rewind

Ever since I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind—the wildly imaginative, deeply moving, incredibly insightful sci-fi/romance/drama/comedy with Jim Carrey that came out in 2004—I've been pretty keen to see what else writer-director Michel Gondry can do. I found his next fiction feature film, The Science of Sleep, ultimately unsatisfying, but just as imaginative and affecting as ESotSM. So I was thrilled to hear about Gondry's latest project: Be Kind Rewind. This film—set over the bridge and up the road a piece in Passaic, New Jersey—is about one of those small, privately-owned video rental stores that are still fighting it out against the big chain stores. The shop is called Be Kind Rewind, and it's run by an aging man named Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover). His only employee is Mike (Mos Def), a young man who looks up to him as a kind of father figure. And, in fact, Mr. Fletcher has fatherly feelings for Mike, and tends to keep things from him that he knows will make him unhappy – like the fact that the shop is not doing well, the building has been condemned, and if he doesn't make a lot of money and do a lot of repairs in a very short period of time, it's going to be taken away from him to be demolished and turned into a modern apartment building. Mr. Fletcher tells Mike he's going on a trip and leaves him to take care of the store while he spies on the nearby West Coast Video in the hopes of getting the information he needs to turn his business around. Mike has been given only one hard-and-fast rule while Mr. Fletcher is away: keep Jerry out! Jerry (Jack Black) is Mike's buddy, and the local kook – a paranoid weirdo who works down at the junkyard, and lives there in a small trailer, right by the power plant. He's convinced that his mind is somehow being altered or controlled by the power plant, and so one night he convinces Mike to help him sabotage the place. Mike has second thoughts, but Jerry goes through with it – or at least tries to. Actually, all he succeeds in doing is getting himself electro-magnetized, so that the next time he walks into the video store, he erases all the tapes.

When Mike discovers the horrible truth, he's frantic; he doesn't want to disappoint Mr. Fletcher, or Mr. Fletcher's loyal customers, especially Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow). So Mike hatches a crazy plan; he and Jerry will film their own, home-made, "Sweded" versions of the movies, using themselves and whoever they can find nearby (like Alma, the local girl down at the laundromat, who actually becomes a close friend and an integral member of the team) as actors, and cobbled together bits of junk as props and special effects. At first they do it out of desperation, but before they know it their versions of the movies are becoming popular, and they're starting to take real pride and joy in their creations. But what will Mr. Fletcher thinks when he returns? And do they have a shot at somehow saving the video store from destruction?

It's a goofy premise, but it's a perfect one for Gondry. His kind of filmmaking is, after all, all about doing special effects live, in front of the camera, inventing all kinds of crazy gadgets and props. Jerry's and Mike's little movies are wonderful things: hilarious, ridiculous, surreal, inventive, fantastic. Just like the movie itself. Really the whole thing is a love letter to film – to the feelings of joy, wonder, camaraderie, and family that are created by making and watching movies. It's about bringing people together and making reality more bearable using imagination and artifice. And in a great scene featuring a cameo from Sigourney Weaver, it even takes on the concept of piracy. It's a silly, beautiful, moving little movie and I love it deeply. I'm not going to say it's a better movie than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but it is another masterpiece from a great filmmaker whose future work I will continue to look forward to.

Image via Internet Movie Poster Awards Gallery.