Be Kind Rewind

I always felt like one of the last people in America to convert over to the DVD player. In fact, I still have a box of VHS tapes of movies I have not found on DVD quite yet, and I bust one out and watch it every so often. Sure, they don't have the picture or video quality of DVD and VCRs have been known to chew through them fairly regularly, but I like the nostalgia of the VHS. Apparently, I was not the last one though, because in Michel Gondry's latest bizarre movie, Be Kind Rewind, there is essentially an entire town, Passaic, New Jersey, that is stuck in the nostalgia of the VHS.

Mike( Mos Def) works in a run down, nothing-but-VHS video rental store and Elroy Fletcher(Danny Glover) is the owner of the store and they both seem to live upstairs. Business is not good with a new box rental store (Think Blockbuster or Hollywood) has come in with lots of titles and lots of DVDs. Elroy is not keen on the DVD player because he doesn't want his customers to have to purchase the upgrade. Jerry(Jack Black) is Mike's best friend and his job is to watch some sort of power plant at night, so his house is a trailer on the lot of the plant. Mike and Jerry do not know this, but Elroy has been told by the state that his store is not up to code and it will be knocked down to build new condos in a matter of months if he cannot afford the renovations. Elroy leaves the store in Mike's hands while he goes to spy on the big box store. One night Jerry tries to destroy the plant, something goes horribly wrong and he gets magnetized; he walks into Mike's shop and with his mere presence erases every tape in the store. At first everything seems doomed because the most regular customer, Miss Falowicz, wants to watch Ghostbusters. Then, Mike gets the brilliant idea to shoot Ghostbusters themselves, all low tech like. It turns out to be a hit with the youth in town and soon everyone wants Mike and Jerry's low tech movies that they say are "sweded." They enlist the goofy, cute, Alma (Melonie Diaz) to help them and soon their entire store is full of these sweded movies. They are charging $20.00 per movie and think they may make the money they need to save the store. Things don't always work the way you want them to and in the end the entire town comes together to create a fictional documentary about Fats Waller, a Jazz Musician who may or may not have been born inside the video store.

After I watch a movie I hit the IMDB message boards to gauge the general consensus view on a movie and I was shocked to find this movie being obliterated on the message boards. I am not sure these people saw the same movie I did because I fell in love with this movie from the very beginning. Jack Black is usually one of the most obnoxious actors on screen, but in this movie I found him to be funny and charming and his chemistry with Mos Def's somewhat slower Mike, totally worked for me. The Sweded movies are not only hilarious but creative in a way that makes me want to pick up a camera and start shooting movies. The Ghostbusters scene is the longest and funniest, but the remakes of Robocop, Driving Miss Daisy and Rush Hour 2 are also hilarious. They find a way to make low tech special effects and even animation in a way that shows real heart and passion for movies. Gondry also has fun with Black's character being magnetized in some funny physical comedy side gags. Danny Glover is also a very nice addition as he actually plays quirkiness quite well.

The final 25 minutes of this movie is where the real creativity lies though. When the entire town rallies to shoot this documentary, we see them finding ways to create all kinds of set pieces and props with just the stuff they have around them. Not to mention how having them shoot near fan gives the impression that it is old, from the sound. There is a lot of suspension of disbelief involved in enjoying this movie, but you can wrap your head around the silly premise and get to the heart of the picture I think it is very much worth it. Be Kind Rewind is a movie that believes in movie making magic. It is a movie that believes movies can bring people together in a time of crisis and can unite people in a bigger cause. It believes movies are made with heart and that movies can be good even if they are shot for basically no money. Be Kind Rewind believes in movies the way I believe in movies and the way my friends believes in movies. It is creatively shot, has some very good laugh out loud moments and underneath it all, it is heart warming.

Final Grade: A-