Review: Gondry's 'Rewind' lets viewers unwind

Media Credit: Courtesy of NEW LINE CINEMA BACK TO BLACK - Jack Black and Mos Def remake several popular films for Mr. Fletcher's (Danny Glover) video store in "Be Kind Rewind," the newest film by Academy Award-winning French director Michel Gondry.

"Be Kind Rewind" might seem like a regressive step for famed French director Michel Gondry. Compared to his last two fictional films, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "The Science of Sleep," this flick starring Jack Black and Mos Def appears downright ordinary - not ordinary in the sense that it is mediocre, which it certainly is not, but ordinary in the sense that it is simple.

Where Gondry's previous works looked inside protagonists and toyed with their notions of memory and desire, "Be Kind Rewind" plays off a simple but endlessly enjoyable premise: Mike, a video store clerk played by Mos Def, has been put in charge of Mr. Fletcher's (Danny Glover) store for the weekend. While Mr. Fletcher is gone, the store clerk's friend Jerry (Jack Black) accidentally erases all the videocassettes. The video rental business cannot restock its collection; not one local store carries VHS tapes anymore. So, what are the video store clerk and his friend to do? Remake all the erased videos and hope that the customers either can't tell the difference or don't care.

What action ensues in act two is rather predictable. But, judging from the audience's reaction to last Tuesday night's press screening, no one really cared. And that's because Gondry's concept ­- an unlikely video store clerk and his kooky, trailer-dwelling companion producing their very own films that people rent and watch - captures the interest of the contemporary adolescent and young adult generations. Many of these moviegoers have grown up toying with their parents' video cameras. Their moving-making adventures were made possible because video, not film, turned everyone from your mom to your grandma to your sister's guinea pig into an amateur filmmaker.

Yes, we laugh at Mos Def and Black attempting to remake such films as "Ghostbusters," "Rush Hour 2" and "RoboCop" because everything from their shot composition to their in-camera editing to their set design is terrible. But we also laugh because, at some point or another, we tried the very same thing - maybe not with "Ghostbusters," but certainly with another equally ridiculous film.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools

Be the first to comment on this story

• Name: (required)
• Email: (required)
• NOTE: Email address will not be published
• Website:

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

Email notify will not work because you are not currently logged in.
Click here to quickly login or create a free account.

Type your comment below (html not allowed)

  I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.