Thursday, July 24, 2008

Delightful D.I.Y. Fable

Be Kind Rewind

Directed by Michel Gondry(2007)

Not the funniest, hippest, or most clever film out there, not the best actors or story realy, but this film does have some things which many don't, a sense of sincerity, joy, community, myth, and the D.I.Y. creative spirit. It's an enjoyable light-he arted film, grounded in Michel Gondry's lovely junkyard aesthetics.










It's a great (at least good) concept, with some dull, and very amusing moments. After all of the tapes at the video Mos Def's(Jerry) grandfather (Danny Glover) runs, are erased, by the paranoid living electromagnet, that Jack Black(Mike) temporaily becomes, the two set out to re-create all of the films, themselves. The short, made by request home movie versions of feature films like "Driving Miss Daisy", "Ghostbusters", "Boys In The Hood", "Rush Hour 2" etc, dubbed for nonsensical reasons "Swedes", become a huge hit, until they are sued for copyright infringment(by Sigourny Weaver), which forces them to attempt to make something of their own.
"The Purple Rose Of Cairo" is the best movie about the contradictory impulses movies create in life, I think. This is about life creating movies, about making your own myths out of your own enviornment, and on that level it works.













Nevermind Jack Black's character not making any sense, it's Jack Black(let it go), Mos Def does an excellent performance, seeming more adolescent, than the cock-sure MC Ive seen onstage at concerts. Well both Black and Def are musicians, and Gondry makes a lot of music videos, and alot of this movie just feels like everyone having a good time, not taking the movie too seriously, and just letting this happen. It's a movie for film-makers, movie lovers, and self empowered artisans of all kinds. Not as sophisticated script wise as early Michel Gondry films like "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind", "The Science Of Sleep", and "Human Nature", but like his documentary "Dave Chapele's Bloc Party", it captures a relatively unseen joy and love of art, be it music or movies. Good rainy day fun, with a message you don't have to roll your eyes to.

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