Celluloid
I tend to gravitate towards polarizing films, and Michel Gondry, the visionary director who helmed Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and The Science Of Sleep, has made an extremely polarizing film with his new comedy Be Kind Rewind. While many detractors will undoubtedly criticize the film's undeniably silly plot, the farcical film is a heartwearming homage to the magic of filmmaking. Gondry, who I consider to be one of the most imaginitive auteurs working today, approaches Be Kind Rewind with childlike creativity and lo-fi charm. The film's premise is pretty ridiculous and centers around Mike (Mos Def), who works at a lowly video rental store/thrift store in Passaic, New Jersey named "Be Kind Rewind" that still rents movies in VHS format and is endangered of being demolished and replaced with condos. When owner Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) goes out of town, Mike is left to run the store. After Mike's obnoxious friend Jerry (Jack Black) unknowingly gets magnetized after pulling a stunt, the video store's entire library of videos is accidentally erased. Armed with only a thrift-store video camera and extremely limited resources, the pair of friends are forced to reshoot, or "swede," their own 20-minute versions of well-known blockbuster films such as Ghostbusters and Rush Hour 2. Strangely, the new "sweded" films cultivate a local cult following, and the duo finds itself reshooting the store's entire library. The newfound popularity even brings forth the possibility of saving the store from its demise. To say that Gondry expects his audience to suspend disbelief from the onset of the film would be an understatement, but in a strange way Gondry has "sweded" his own film in doing so. Be Kind Rewind isn't going to appeal to everybody, but those who are willing to suspend logic and realism and those who have ever tapped into their own childlike creativity should appreciate the heart and whimsy at its core. -- Capt. Obvious
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