326 - Be Kind Rewind

Filmmaking is hard work. Lots of movies have been made about the process, but it isn’t until you grab a camera and try it yourself that the maddening difficulty and monotony of the art becomes painfully clear.

Of course, this is a review of “Be Kind Rewind,” where the protagonists make their own films, but that’s actually not what I’m talking about. I’m thinking Michel Gondry, who wrote and directed films such as this one, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” and “The Science of Sleep.” Anyone who has seen them (or his music videos) knows that he has a supremely creative eye and thus a great talent. Yet his films seem to reflect more of an interest in silly whimsy than serious or meaningful themes and topics. Why work so hard, pouring blood and sweat into a work, simply for it to be a gossamer exercise in mild amusement?

I suppose mildly amusing is better than unamusing, though whether or not it’s a compliment depends on how high your standards are. The film stars Mos Def and Jack Black as Mike and Jerry, two losers who spend the majority of their time at Be Kind Rewind, a video store that rents only VHS tapes. This wouldn’t be peculiar ten years ago, but the film’s setting is contemporary, so their business is rather pathetic. The tapes are only a dollar a night, though I suspect anyone who has rented tapes from the local Family Video won’t find that price such a great deal.

One night Jerry gets into a bout of screwy nonsense, although I could describe the entire film with those two words, but I’ll decline to be more specific. The result is that every tape in this crummy store is erased, sending Mike into a panic as he faces disappointing his vacationing employer (Danny Glover). While this would be an opportune time to upgrade the store’s video format of choice, Mike and Jerry compensate by filming their own versions of the movies, producing versions of “Ghostbusters” and “Robocop” where the protagonist spends a lot of time talking to the camera operator.

“That sounds stupid,” said one person I know when I described the plot, but to call it stupid is sort of like calling a “Saw” movie gory; the film couldn’t exist or rope in an audience if it wasn’t. One could argue that it’s actually about the audience role in filmmaking or the collective joy of the experience, but with something this carelessly foolish it’s hard to tell if a point was intended.

The scenery is littered with films ranging from the popular (“The Lord of the Rings”) to the obscure (“Gummo”), but “Be Kind Rewind” spends virtually no time actually reveling in a love of movies, perhaps other than the one you just paid to see. I suppose the people involved knew that they loved this stuff, and weren’t particularly concerned about whether or not we did. Perhaps Gondry gauged that most of the audience would be of the movie-loving type, but they can’t read minds, and they might bring someone else in with them.

Many directors like to wink at the audience. After “Be Kind Rewind,” I’m convinced that Gondry likes to wink at himself.

2.5 out of 5