Be Kind RewindHonoring the past sometimes means reinventing it. Be Kind Rewind is a comedy about a pair of well-meaning yet bumbling locals from Passaic, New Jersey--Mike Coolwell (Mos Def) and Jerry Mclean (Jack Black)--who end up reenacting scenes from some classic (and less classic) films after the VHS tapes belonging to the proprietor of a video rental store, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover), are erased after a freak accident. What begins as a paper-thin scheme to avoid ruining Mr. Fletcher's already faltering business ends up making Mike and Jerry--and their new recruit, Alma (Melonie Diaz)--local celebrities as their "sweded" versions of the rentals become more popular than the originals.
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Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind is at its most uproarious when Mike and Jerry are fumbling through their amateur endeavors at remaking films, but it is also a movie about community. The film opens with scenes from a documentary about the life of jazz musician, Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller, played by characters in Be Kind Rewind. Mr. Fletcher claims that his video rental store--called "Be Kind Rewind"--is where Fats was born. Mike has been raised on stories about Fats Waller and how Passaic was the true birthing grounds of jazz; although Mike is technically Fletcher's employee, their relationship is more paternal. The Passaic in Be Kind Rewind is on the verge of an urban renewal project, with Fletcher's home and business doomed to be torn down unless he can pay to bring the building up to code. Despite Fletcher's passion for Fats Waller and his community, he is no businessman, evidenced by his reluctance to adopt more popular formats--he rents VHS tapes exclusively for a dollar a night when he can get it. When Fletcher takes a personal trip to visit the last resting place of Fats Waller, he leaves Mike in charge, even though Mike appears to have had little to no training. After Jerry fails to recruit Mike to sabotage the power plant--which he believes is causing discord in the town for reasons known only to him--his body becomes magnetized, which in turn accidentally destroys all of Fletcher's inventory. One of Fletcher's customers, Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), suspects that something is amiss when she comes to rent Ghostbusters, and the duo awkwardly try to deter her from renting it. She threatens to return to rent the film by close of business, sending Mike into a mad scramble to produce the movie. After Mike is unable to find a legitimate copy, an insane idea comes to him: he grabs his camera and forces Jerry to help him make an amateur reenactment of the movie, convinced that they can pass it off as the real film. What Mike and Jerry lack in star power and budget they make up for in raw nerve, gusto, and even ingenuity, recreating scenes from the movies with only their nostalgia as a reference point. The idea is so insane that it shouldn't work, but Fletcher's customers suddenly start flocking in droves to rent these rare, sweded movies.
Recruiting Alma completes their "Three Stooges"-esque trifecta, and proves advantageous since she has more business acumen than both Mike and Jerry. Their efforts to conceal the truth about their movies not being the real thing makes for hysterical comedy, as they are always on the verge of being discovered at any second. Even when it becomes clear that their customers are aware of the ruse, it doesn't diminish their willingness to pay the twenty dollar membership fee to have these unique rental experiences. (All of the customers can't be so inept as to believe that these are the original films.) Their patrons understand that what Mike and Jerry are offering is not about a generic night in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn, but about a couple of guys working their butts off to create something unique to their community. They shoot the films in and around town, and begin recruiting locals as extras and employing elaborate props in unintentionally funny scenarios. Like Tommy Wiseau's The Room, they have made a film that is more endearing and hilarious because of its diminished production values. The result isn't just some soulless, consumer product from an assembly line--it is literally a one-of-a-kind work of "art"...a true "video on demand" service.
Be Kind Rewind gets the best yuks from the multitude of shout-outs to a diverse spectrum of modern movies--rough impressions of films like Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2, and even Driving Miss Daisy. Because Mike and Jerry do not have access to complete scripts or authentic costumes, their renditions often look absurd, containing bizarre interpretations of classic lines of dialogue--or even well-known theme songs. Given how popular the sweded movies become--attracting customers from as far as New York City--it isn't surprising that the FBI gets wise to the copyright infringement, inviting a cease and desist order delivered by Miss Lawson--played by Sigourney Weaver in a nod to the duo's first sweded movie. (My money is on the woman who Alma tries to gouge for her membership fee due to her poor grades in school as the informant.) Although the question lingers as to whether Lawson is accurate in her assessment that the films violate copyright law--they are original films, after all--the filmmaking process has already poured the foundation for organizing the community, to feel involved in something, even something as silly as making amateur movies. When Alma suggests increasing revenue by offering to cast members of the community in the films, it may seem opportunistic, but it speaks to a deeper desire to draw everyone in on the fun. Even though the sweded films are inevitably destroyed, the neighborhood has already acquired a taste for togetherness, and unite to save Fletcher's home by creating an alternate-history documentary about Fats Waller, even though none of them know anything about the jazz musician. This is pretty amazing considering that early on, when Mike is bumbling around in the store trying to service his impatient customers, these same people were pretty condescending and even embittered toward him; yet even the impatient ones are in the audience at the community screening of their movie about Fats Waller. The ending of Be Kind Rewind recalls the uplifting conclusion of It's a Wonderful Life, and underscores that despite how destitute or unfriendly a community may seem, when you do something for them that no one else has before, they will remember and appreciate you for it later.
Recommended for: Fans of a self-aware comedy about the outlandish antics of a pair of driven young men turned amateur filmmakers, stumbling their way through an abundance of contemporary films. Be Kind Rewind is also about the importance of cherishing the past and how giving something back to the community brings people together.
Recruiting Alma completes their "Three Stooges"-esque trifecta, and proves advantageous since she has more business acumen than both Mike and Jerry. Their efforts to conceal the truth about their movies not being the real thing makes for hysterical comedy, as they are always on the verge of being discovered at any second. Even when it becomes clear that their customers are aware of the ruse, it doesn't diminish their willingness to pay the twenty dollar membership fee to have these unique rental experiences. (All of the customers can't be so inept as to believe that these are the original films.) Their patrons understand that what Mike and Jerry are offering is not about a generic night in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn, but about a couple of guys working their butts off to create something unique to their community. They shoot the films in and around town, and begin recruiting locals as extras and employing elaborate props in unintentionally funny scenarios. Like Tommy Wiseau's The Room, they have made a film that is more endearing and hilarious because of its diminished production values. The result isn't just some soulless, consumer product from an assembly line--it is literally a one-of-a-kind work of "art"...a true "video on demand" service.
Be Kind Rewind gets the best yuks from the multitude of shout-outs to a diverse spectrum of modern movies--rough impressions of films like Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2, and even Driving Miss Daisy. Because Mike and Jerry do not have access to complete scripts or authentic costumes, their renditions often look absurd, containing bizarre interpretations of classic lines of dialogue--or even well-known theme songs. Given how popular the sweded movies become--attracting customers from as far as New York City--it isn't surprising that the FBI gets wise to the copyright infringement, inviting a cease and desist order delivered by Miss Lawson--played by Sigourney Weaver in a nod to the duo's first sweded movie. (My money is on the woman who Alma tries to gouge for her membership fee due to her poor grades in school as the informant.) Although the question lingers as to whether Lawson is accurate in her assessment that the films violate copyright law--they are original films, after all--the filmmaking process has already poured the foundation for organizing the community, to feel involved in something, even something as silly as making amateur movies. When Alma suggests increasing revenue by offering to cast members of the community in the films, it may seem opportunistic, but it speaks to a deeper desire to draw everyone in on the fun. Even though the sweded films are inevitably destroyed, the neighborhood has already acquired a taste for togetherness, and unite to save Fletcher's home by creating an alternate-history documentary about Fats Waller, even though none of them know anything about the jazz musician. This is pretty amazing considering that early on, when Mike is bumbling around in the store trying to service his impatient customers, these same people were pretty condescending and even embittered toward him; yet even the impatient ones are in the audience at the community screening of their movie about Fats Waller. The ending of Be Kind Rewind recalls the uplifting conclusion of It's a Wonderful Life, and underscores that despite how destitute or unfriendly a community may seem, when you do something for them that no one else has before, they will remember and appreciate you for it later.
Recommended for: Fans of a self-aware comedy about the outlandish antics of a pair of driven young men turned amateur filmmakers, stumbling their way through an abundance of contemporary films. Be Kind Rewind is also about the importance of cherishing the past and how giving something back to the community brings people together.