Be Kind Rewind

It's better to create than to consume, that's the liberating message in Michel Gondry's new comedy, though this declaration of independence inadvertently highlights some of the drawbacks associated with "am-auteurs".

There's an authentic touch of genius in Michel Gondry. He's like one of those mad inventors in old black and white movies, devising brilliant contraptions of no practical use to man or beast. He's at his best in the short format of pop videos, commercials and YouTube doodles. In features, his batting record is all over the place: Human Nature; Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind; The Science of Sleep. You'll find passionate advocates for all three, but only the second film convinced the audience at large. Be Kind Rewind suggests he doesn't really care about that - he's happiest left to his own devices, playing with himself.

A corny comic fable in the Frank Capra tradition, it's the story of Mike and Jerry (Mos Def and Jack Black). Mike works in a cheap independent video rental store in Pessac, New Jersey. His boss (Danny Glover) is an old timer who loves to reminisce, a jazz-lover who takes special pride in the fact that Fats Waller once lived in this very building. He'll have nothing to do with those new-fangled DVD things, but of course times are a-changing, and unless he can turn his business around in a matter of weeks, the building will be sold right out from under him.

Left in charge of the store - ostensibly so Glover can attend a Fats Waller Society get-together - Mike tries to follow orders and keep his buddy Jerry out, but it's easier said than done. A paranoid conspiracy theorist who lives in a trailer under the shadow of the electricity plant, Jerry accidentally electrocutes himself in the course of a guerilla sabotage incident. The next day, he retains such a powerful magnetic charge he erases every VHS tape in the store.

What to do? In a rush of crazed inspiration, the duo set about making DIY videos of Hollywood favourites: in a couple of hours they've knocked off Ghostbusters. The next day, with the help of Alma (Melonie Diaz) from the local laundrette, they tackle the heights of Rush Hour 2. The Lion King, Robocop and even Driving Miss Daisy all get the same treatment - they call it "swede-ing" for some reason. And the customers love it!

I'm bound to say I'm skeptical that this business strategy would work for LOVEFiLM (I'm game if you are), but these sweded films-within-the-film are a lot of fun, not just for the novelty of seeing Jack Black play Jessica Tandy, but more for the "Blue Peter"-type ingenuity with which our amateur adventurers recreate Hollywood effects with a bit of cardboard, some junk, tin-foil, and a pizza standing in for blood stains.

The film-without is less engaging. For a start Gondry (who nominally wrote the script, though you have to wonder if such a document actually existed) has pegged the enterprise to that hoary old "developers are evil" scenario. There's an equally hackneyed subplot: lawyers are evil. You don't have to disagree with these contentions to wish an innovator like Gondry could come up with something a bit more original. The forthcoming Garth Jennings' movie Son Of Rambow would be a salient point of comparison, and demonstrates the considerable virtues of a proper screenplay.

Gondry's characters are as paper-thin as his structure. Jack Black fills the void with his usual manic bluster, sometimes amusingly, but there's not much for Mos Def to latch on to. And the big climactic show-piece (which resembles a Guy Maddin movie) is actually kind of boring.

I don't think we have to take Gondry's nostalgia for VHS at face value - it was a wretched format, and I can't imagine anyone misses it. Be Kind Rewind is more modern than it appears - it's really a closet celebration of the internet user-cinema of tribute, pastiche and parody that flourishes on sites like YouTube. Appropriately, the movie itself would be much improved chopped into seven or eight highlights and posted online without the mediocre connective tissue.

Tom Charity
tom.charity@lovefilm.com

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