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Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry)
"I Was More Interested In The Sweded Films...Unfortunately."
When a man's brain becomes magnetized by a freak accident, he unintentionally destroys all the VHS video tapes in his friends video store. Being the only store left that sells VHS, they can't buy any new copies anywhere and have to please the customers before the owner comes back from a vacation. So they only logical thing to do is re-create the films themselves.
I don't really know what I expected from this film, Gondry is a visual genius and all of his films are incredible imaginative and his latest installment, Be Kind Rewind, is his most commercially accessible film yet, which may be why it has a lot of problems. My main problem with this film is that is would be better suited as a student film and it feels like it as well. It comes off as a fan's way of giving props to the films he loves and this problem is because of the script.
I never really connected with any of the characters. Which is a shame because I'm a student filmmaker. I never got the feeling that Mos Def cared for what he was doing, only doing it to get the "business" going, which is why the entire film at the end didn't work too well for me. Black seemed restrained here, which is odd because in a film like this you would expect it to ask more from a talented comedian. Glover is getting old, he he fit perfectly in the role of the old timer who owns an old and failing video store, in an old and crumbling building. Diaz seemed really thrown in, just for a female character to interact with the two leads.
Be Kind Rewind isn't your typical comedy, it doesn't go for obvious jokes, or gross out humour. It relies on the audience to know their film history and simply "get it". If you've never seen 2001, or Driving Miss Daisy, you might not get the comedy here. The film also has heart and soul, which is really lacking in films today, specifically comedies. The community that is brought together in the film and while it may seem cheesy, it is heartwarming.
As a film student, I can appreciate the way they sweded the films and they look like they have incredible fun when doing so, but it is not that easy. I liked how they cut corners with the low budget they have, which is actually no budget. The spirit of film making is there and I respect and connect with that on every level. So much that I wanted more of it, not just a montage (even though it was an incredibly well done montage).
In the end, I wanted to really like the film, Gondry is a talented filmmaker with a creative imagination and the talent to bring it to the screen. But, Be Kind Rewind fails to crack that genius he has and makes it way to us as a decent film, that could have been so much more.
"I Was More Interested In The Sweded Films...Unfortunately."
When a man's brain becomes magnetized by a freak accident, he unintentionally destroys all the VHS video tapes in his friends video store. Being the only store left that sells VHS, they can't buy any new copies anywhere and have to please the customers before the owner comes back from a vacation. So they only logical thing to do is re-create the films themselves.
I don't really know what I expected from this film, Gondry is a visual genius and all of his films are incredible imaginative and his latest installment, Be Kind Rewind, is his most commercially accessible film yet, which may be why it has a lot of problems. My main problem with this film is that is would be better suited as a student film and it feels like it as well. It comes off as a fan's way of giving props to the films he loves and this problem is because of the script.
I never really connected with any of the characters. Which is a shame because I'm a student filmmaker. I never got the feeling that Mos Def cared for what he was doing, only doing it to get the "business" going, which is why the entire film at the end didn't work too well for me. Black seemed restrained here, which is odd because in a film like this you would expect it to ask more from a talented comedian. Glover is getting old, he he fit perfectly in the role of the old timer who owns an old and failing video store, in an old and crumbling building. Diaz seemed really thrown in, just for a female character to interact with the two leads.
Be Kind Rewind isn't your typical comedy, it doesn't go for obvious jokes, or gross out humour. It relies on the audience to know their film history and simply "get it". If you've never seen 2001, or Driving Miss Daisy, you might not get the comedy here. The film also has heart and soul, which is really lacking in films today, specifically comedies. The community that is brought together in the film and while it may seem cheesy, it is heartwarming.
As a film student, I can appreciate the way they sweded the films and they look like they have incredible fun when doing so, but it is not that easy. I liked how they cut corners with the low budget they have, which is actually no budget. The spirit of film making is there and I respect and connect with that on every level. So much that I wanted more of it, not just a montage (even though it was an incredibly well done montage).
In the end, I wanted to really like the film, Gondry is a talented filmmaker with a creative imagination and the talent to bring it to the screen. But, Be Kind Rewind fails to crack that genius he has and makes it way to us as a decent film, that could have been so much more.