Be Kind Rewind - out now
More light-hearted than French director Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind nonetheless shares its surreal assumptions. Set in retrograde Passiac, New Jersey, sweet-natured Mike (Mos Def) works in a video store run by kindly Mr Fletcher (Danny Glover), an old-timer who still exclusively rents out dusty old VHS tapes, fitting for the dreary backwater in which the store is situated. When Mr Fletcher takes a trip out of town, he leaves his store in the capable hands of Mike, giving him just one piece of advice: not to let Mike’s quirky friend Jerry (Jack Black) anywhere near the store. However, Jerry, whose body has been completely electro-magnetised after breaking into the local power plant, does visit the store and inadvertently wipes every single tape. Only one option is left to the pair: armed with a video camera, they start with a biopic of Fats Waller, going on to film their own versions of classics such as Rush Hour 2 and Ghostbusters Pretty soon the home-made films achieve cult status and the money won’t stop rolling in.
Be Kind Rewind explores the childlike joy of filmmaking, and a nostalgia for a time when plot came before special effects is one of its selling point.
The motto “You name it, we’ll shoot it!” bridges the gap between audience and producer and cries against the implied corporate soullessness of Hollywood films today. In spite of the film’s evident admiration for YouTube, camera phones and the like, our two heroes display a penchant for antiquated technology, subverting scenes from famous movies with their hand-made props whilst affirming budding home film-makers with the assurance that you don’t need a $20 million budget to create a barrel of laughs. The film indulges in an infectious playfulness that’s not exactly deep or thought provoking, just a good hour and a half or so of post-modern playful reference-o-clock popcorn fun.
