Be Kind Rewind
(M) Roadshow DVD

Michel Gondry is a remarkable filmmaker. The concepts and ideas behind his films are both intriguing and beguiling.

Be Kind Rewind is nothing if not a loving homage to homemade filmmaking. An ode to discovering a gift of creativity and passionately sharing it with others, this is a film about the romance of film, about community and about miracle-making.

Mike (Mos Def) works in a video store that stubbornly rents out VHS tapes in an age of DVD. His friend Jerry is a trouble-making conspiracy theorist who believes that the local power station poses a threat to the general populace.

In the film’s wacky set-up, Jerry is accidentally magnetised when he tries to sabotage the power station. Jerry turns up at the video store and summarily wipes all of the tapes on the shelves, leaving Mike with a dilemma. With Mr Fletcher, the store owner away, and clientele to serve what can they do?

In order to keep the struggling business afloat, Mike and Jerry begin remaking the films themselves in the store one by one. Their hilariously low-budget versions of films such as Ghostbusters and Rush Hour 2 soon begin to draw attention and business to the store. Mike and Jerry become local heroes with their versions of popular films in high demand.

Though Gondry’s three previous films—Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and The Science of Sleep — were essentially love stories, Be Kind Rewind captures another kind of romance, the sheer joy of watching and making films.

Adrian Drayton