Be Kind Rewind: Michel Gondry's Ode to Throwbacks

On the night of the 2008 Academy Awards, the writing team at Heady Brew Productions, Jason Cangialosi and Chris Valderrama, made a highly symbolic viewing choice. While sipping down happy hour drafts, the flat screen above the bar silently played the Oscar pre-game interviews. Tempting as it was to down a full happy hour while Jon Stewart ripped on celebrities for a change, our plan was to catch a movie. The experience of choice was a showing of Michel Gondry's new film with Danny Glover, Mos Def and Jack Black, Be Kind Rewind. Checking out the Academy Awards should be required curiosity for anyone working within film. All the same, seeing Be Kind Rewind instead revealed a new breed of film-making, helping to erase the line between audience and auteur.

We passed up Oscar's decadent meal in an overpriced wonderland for Be Kind Rewind's greasy grub at a neighborhood counter-top. While a seemingly inconsequential choice with no connection other than preference, it carried a weight all it's own in retrospect. The Oscars reflect the glitz and glam of an untouchable realm of film-making; an overindulgent pat on the back that goes round the inner circle of Hollywood. Thinking of this after reading some of Michel Gondry's interviews for Be Kind Rewind, put the greasy spoon style of film-making in perspective.

The entire premise of Be Kind Rewind dances around two overly imaginative minds, Mos Def and Jack Black, trapped in Passaic, New Jersey. In order to save a failing VHS video rental/thrift store, owned by Danny Glover, they must remake every film in the shop to keep customers happy. The reason for this is an undeniably absurd, yet expected, plot device from Gondry that we won't spoil for you here. Most of all, we don't want to review the film in a traditional sense or deconstruct how Gondry's imaginative tactics subdue even Jack Black's over the top style. We want you to see the film, plucking Oscar's silver spoon of predictability from your mouth, and load up a mouthful of home cooked Gondry stew. Be Kind Rewind, is inspired by a novel idea and also the lifeline of what makes a filmmaker tick. It is inspired by the possibility that anyone with a creative desire can capture imagination, life and memory on film.

Some might call it the YouTube generation, where any fool with a camera can upload a world-wide premier of their cut and paste imagination. With this, the opportunity for some raw talent to shine through is ripe and ready, as long as we, the audience, dig through the piles of cyber junk. This is exactly what Gondry is getting at with Be Kind Rewind and the film is testament to amateurs turned auteur. Though, he has also paid respect to the style of Italian Neorealist filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica, who used street actors to address burning social themes through cinema. Be Kind Rewind is infused with Gondry's comical melancholy and trademark of hand crafted special effects, similar to Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and The Science of Sleep. This is what fueled Gondry's career from Music Videos to features, and there is always room for more originality in the marketplace of ideas.

The difference between Gondry's past works and Be Kind Rewind comes through his exit from cerebral spaces and into the tangible playground of neighborhoods, community and VHS. While Be Kind Rewind takes a modern setting, it's a throwback in every sense of the word, from homage to 1980's blockbusters, VHS tapes; and full rewind to Fats Waller's rent parties. The modern elements come in the overshadowing conflict of gentrification and characters stuck in a past, but not embracing it, namely Danny Glover's character. Embracing the past, like a Saturday afternoon spent browsing a thrift store with good friends, seems to be a message that Gondry conveys. There is a sentiment to the story that plays up the cynical old man syndrome who's hope is renewed by the dreams of young minds. Danny Glover's character has instilled in Mos Def and Jack Black, a social courtesy sorely lacking in today's world.

Just the idea of "Be Kind Rewind" labeled on a video cassette has been eliminated from today's marketplace, where consumers need not think of the next viewer. As Danny Glover's character tours several big chain movie rental stores, he reveals that courtesy is not just lost to technology, but also in customer service and choice. Courtesy between neighbors is hardly needed anymore, where convenience and rushed delivery is fed to us on the silver spoon of commercialism. We don't have to wait for parking spots in the big box lots, nor wait for a rental to be returned in the sea of monotony lining the shelves. This may not seem like such a bad thing, but the compromise comes in the lack of choice and fading decency in humanity's spoiled ways. There is also the overriding threat of developers who need not think of the past as they sever the roots of a neighborhood. The characters' affinity to Fats Waller, based on a claim that he was born in the same building as the rental shop, is the strongest thread of this theme and finds an optimistic knot tied in the end.

Seeing several of the reviews written about Be Kind Rewind, they often come across as misinformed and cynical. Be Kind Rewind is a film born from a director and writer who is anything but conventional or cynical. Audiences can't expect entertainment in the traditional sense when they partake in a Gondry film. If you enjoyed his past films, then Be Kind Rewind will equally captivate you. It's an acquired taste, so reviewers who criticize Gondry for conventional methods, are like Latin-Pop fans criticizing diehard Punk music; there's no basis for their critique. On the other hand, if said reviews compared Be Kind Rewind as not living up to Gondry's past films or becoming a sentimental gush of social commentary, perhaps that's fair.

Fair, that is, because there is some basis to those claims, but it is not entirely true, or what we are getting at here. In interviews, Gondry, seems to be encouraging more than just making slapstick remakes of classics and posting it on YouTube. The element of community is potent and compliments the aroma of roots within neighborhoods. Much of this urban sentiment may have come from Gondry's work on Dave Chappelle's Block Party. Imagine gearing up for a party with friends in the neighborhood, and instead of BYOB, it was BYOF; Bring Your Own Films. Everyone remakes, or as the film dubs it, "Swedes", a favorite film cut down to 20 minutes. This is the riot of entertainment Be Kind Rewind inspires; begging neighbors to be superstars and projecting a homemade Hollywood on the side of abandoned buildings. A thoughtful message that asks us not to abandon our roots and get lost in the wash of celluloid drawing blank stares from numb audiences everywhere.

More about Michel Gondry by Jason Cangialosi

The Science of Sleep: Bathtubs, Big Hands and Galloping Steeds.

The Science of Sleep: A Poetic Review of Michel Gondry's Film