Film Review

09 January 2009 03:00 BST

Be Kind Rewind

Directed by Michel Gondry, out now in cinemas, starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Mia Farrow, Danny Glover and Melonie Diaz, running time 101 mins.

In a nutshell...

Frantic farce with a powerful underdog message.

What's it all about?

In the anonymous New Jersey town of Passaic, scrap-yard screwball Jerry (Jack Black) is bizarrely 'magnetised' when a power plant sabotage act goes wrong – and matters go from bad to worse when his condition serves to erase all the videos (emphatically not DVDs) at the rental store that his best friend Mike (Mos Def) is supervising in the absence of shopkeeper Mr Fletcher (Danny Glover).

In a bid to appease regular customers and stop the shop going under, Jerry and Mike embark on a crazy rush to rework the store’s stock of Hollywood movies with an old camera and with themselves as stars. Subsequently enlisting the help of local girl Alma (Melanie Diaz) and eventually a whole host of interested locals, the 'Sweded' remakes – Jerry coins the bamboozling term – become a local sensation, and the quest to keep making them coincides with a crusade to protect Mr Fletcher's shop and the history it supposedly holds.

Who's in it?

Director Michel Gondry carried popular and critical adulation with highly original breakthrough The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He then surprised everyone with markedly different follow-up The Science of Sleep – and Be Kind Rewind once more conjures a fresh world with new rhythms and a different relation to reality.

Jack Black and Mos Def may seem like a step down compared to the talent Gondry has so far worked with (Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Gael Garcia Bernal), but the pair fit perfectly into the Passaic setting. Be Kind Rewind allows School of Rock star Black to delve further into unconventional behaviour, posting a performance akin to Jim Carrey's energetic, unpredictable and creative antics as Ace Ventura or The Mask.

In contrast to Black's histrionics, rapper-turned-actor Mos Def's subtly layered Mike provides a believable mix of conscientious continuity and inspired creativity. Melanie Diaz is also impressive: the young actress held her own alongside Robert Downey Junior and other big names in 2006's A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, and in Be Kind Rewind gives an assuredly sweet smalltown performance. Mia Farrow is accomplished but not stretched as a whining video store regular.

As an example...

- Technology is subordinated to imagination: lacking the equipment or the time to shoot a night-time scene for Ghostbusters, Jerry and Mike put the camera into negative mode and tape on photocopies of their faces.

- Bringing people together: the townsfolk recreate the black and white keys of a piano with the fingers of black and white people.

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

It depends largely on the quality of competition as the year unfolds, but Gondry’s tale of 'Sweded' sequels may well outshine 2008's own sequels, not least Indiana Jones.

What the others say

"Be Kind Rewind is as much a work of creativity and passion as the re-shot, cut-in-camcorder, home-brew "Swedish Import" re-made Hollywood blockbusters that it revolves around." – Cinematical.com

"It's a quick trip from whimsy to silliness in Be Kind Rewind, a notably ephemeral work by Michel Gondry, whose flights of fancy can't overcome the egregious illogic of the premise." - Variety

So is it any good?

Be Kind Rewind is unremittingly funny. Black's juvenile histrionics combine with a colourful host of smalltown characters - and when it is not the dialogue sparking the laughs it is the sheer innovation of Gondry's visual spectacles. And the director's frantic pace and versatile close-in shooting style convey it all along with a lightness of touch that is very watchable.

But Be Kind Rewind is more than just a frenetically funny farce. It is in fact loaded with political hot-potatoes, and Gondry effortlessly takes the side of the marginalised minorities left behind as the world transitions towards the homogeneity of slick new apartments, imposing power plants and globalised DVD superstores.

Yet the message is not merely a rose-tinted remonstration against all that is modern and functional. Loveable old-timer Mr Fletcher is in fact obsessed with discovering the business secrets of more successful large-scale rental franchises, and Mike reminds Jerry that they need the 'evil' power plant for electricity. The message is more about honouring tradition for its own sake; not because what is old, small-scale and local is better, but because it means something to its stubborn defenders and gives them something to unite around. Be Kind Rewind transforms anytown USA into something worth saving from the bulldozers.

Gondry's New Jersey neverland may nonetheless seem more mythical than realistic – and the happy ending is shot with enough dreamy parody to acknowledge its own status as 'if only' cinema. Yet Be Kind Rewind leaves you with a glimmer of hope that community spirit, home-grown produce and a sense of purpose in life might all be possible to rediscover. After all, a camera is all that it takes, and if YouTube is anything to go by, there are no shortage of home video fanatics around.

8/10

Nick Jacobs

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