Movie Review

So last night I went and saw Be Kind, Rewind, the newest installment from director Michel Gondry. While I have been a fan of Gondry's work for some time I was admittedly a little hesitant about this film. Mostly I was aorried about the cast. The pairing of Jack Black and Mos De just seemed too strange to ever work. Jack Black's hyper-frenetic, over the top style is at times brilliant, but often is annoying and forced. This seemed like an odd mix with Mos Def whose subtle hip-hop cool doesn't seen like a strong enough persoality to hold up against Black's overwhelming bravado.

My fears about the pairing were quickly washed away once I saw how the characters played by these actors had been written. Basically they play two grown up children whose innocence is integral to the suspension of disbelief in the film. The film is about two guys from a small neighborhood in Jersey who are left with the responsibility of watching over an independant video-tape rental store while the owner is on vacation to go spy on the methods of a major chain video store. Due to a mishap when Black's character inadvertantly erases all of the tapes, the two must scramble to do something to replace the tapes. Having no money, combined with limited access to more tapes due to the proliferation of the dvd, the two decide that the only solution is to swede all of the movies that had been erased. Swedeing is the art of making a new version of an already existing film using limited resources.

It is in the sweding that Gondry's brilliance is allowed to shine. The incomparably clever re-imaginings of the movies is hilarious. More than it is hilarious it is the thing that really makes this movie worthwhile. The creative strategies employed to imitate the special effects of the large films could honestly be done by any person with the motivation to use them. It makes us ask ourselves, why don't we do that? Why are we limited to a purely spectator role in art? Why can't we be the artists? All it takes is to do it.

This ends up being the resolution to the film. After the evil lawyer, played by Sigourney Weaver in a nice comic turn, sues them for major copyright infringment and destroys all the movies they had worked to make, they are momentarily lost. At this moment Black's childlike solution comes ot the surface. Imstead of making clever copies of movies he asks "Why don't we make our own movies? We can make any movie we want, instead of making a version of Rush Hour 2, why don't we make Rush Hour 6?" The answer to these questions is that there is no reason that they can't make their own movies. So they do make one.

I don't want to give too much away to anybody, but the idea, while simple is extremely positive, and hopefully resonates with the audience. It certainly resonated with me, I feel particularly creative and motivated. Sure, the movie has plenty of flaws, from unnecessary characters to some forgettable scenes, but ultimately its heart is always in the right place, exactly like the sweded movies the film itself showcases.