Nappaland's MovieBlog

☼☼☼

BE KIND REWIND (PG-13)

Plot Summary: In an attempt to cover up a freak accident that erased the contents of an entire video store, two buddies try to reenact classic movies for their community.

Reason for the Rating: Some sexual references.

Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) has been running the rickety video shop in Passaic, New Jersey for as long as anyone can remember. He’s a legend to Mike (Mos Def), his faithful video store employee, just like Fats Waller is to the community, the jazz musician Mr. Fletcher claims was born in the very building the video shop resides in.

But legends are giving way to shining condominium complexes these days, and the city plans to demolish the shop for condos if Mr. Fletcher can’t fix the store up. So Fletcher heads off on a business research trip (i.e. spying on the competition) and puts Mike in charge of the shop, explicitly stating to keep Jerry (Jack Black), Mike’s problem-prone friend, out of the shop.

Paranoid Jerry is just sure the nearby power plant is controlling their brains with radiation, and sets out one night to sabotage the plant. Instead, he’s zapped by radioactive rays and his brain is magnetized. He visits Mike at the video shop the next day and erases every single video with his radioactive head.

In an attempt to cover up, Jerry and Mike film their own version of Ghostbusters for a loyal customer. Surprisingly, the film is loved and word gets out about the talented pair. Soon, the entire neighborhood is lining up to order their own versions of their favorite movies. In the end, the entire community, Mr. Fletcher, Mike, and Jerry come together to create their own piece of history together—the story of Fats Waller, legendary Passaic residence (who in fact never lived there). The making of the film bonds the community and gives them a piece of shared history and memory (albeit false).

Quirky is the word often used to describe writer and director Michel Gondry, who also directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And just like that great film, this film is quirky and unconventional. But the quirks lack the cohesion and symmetry of Eternal Sunshine.

This film jumps from genre to genre—from science fiction, to comedy, to drama—but not always in a good way. (You might be surprised at the warm-fuzzy end to remember the goofy beginning of the film.) Spanning genres isn’t a crime, but doing it in such a way that creates one artistic whole is a challenge that this movie doesn’t rise to.

Instead, Gondry picks up and drops plot threads as they are useful to him. For example, the original driver of the entire film—the magnetization of Jerry’s brain—is discarded easily as Jerry literally urinates out the glowing radiation onto the streets of Passaic. The zany Jack Black radioactive beginning is forgotten by the time you reach the feel-good ending of the community all linking arms together. It leaves the viewer with the impression that this patchwork film was perhaps pieced together by Jack Black and Michel Gondry sitting around saying over a couple of beers, “hey, yeah—and what if then this happened next?”

MOVIEBLOG RECOMMENDS:

An interesting movie worth watching, but wait for the DVD.

AFTER THE SHOW: 

• What brings your community together, whether it is shared history or just a shared hang-out spot?

• Does the place you live have a sense of community? Why do you think it’s important to have this?

• Is there anything you can do to help create or further the community where you live?

AV

☼☼☼

Note: All movie-related graphics in this column are standard publicity/promotional shots and are owned by their respective movie studios.