io9
Be Kind Rewind, Michel Gondry's new movie, is a thematic sequel to his best film, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. In Eternal Sunshine, a mysterious brain-editing machine can erase your memories of a shitty relationship, leaving you free to reinvent yourself. In Be Kind Rewind, Jack Black gets magnetized and then erases a whole store full of videotapes, allowing him and Mos Def to reinvent those stories. The only difference is, Be Kind is a slapstick comedy. And it's about 10,000 times more sentimental. Spoilers await!
Like Eternal Sunshine, Be Kind is slipstream: a melding of genres that uses elements from science fiction but doesn't adhere to all the genre's expectations. The sequence where Jack Black decides to sabotage a power plant and winds up magnetized is very scifi, from the tentacles of current bathing Black's floating body to the weird visual effects that follow him around for a while afterwards. Most of the rest of the movie is "realistic," except that it's totally unrealistic. The movie requires just as much suspension of disbelief as the scifi-iest scifi movie.
Like Eternal Sunshine, Be Kind is slipstream: a melding of genres that uses elements from science fiction but doesn't adhere to all the genre's expectations. The sequence where Jack Black decides to sabotage a power plant and winds up magnetized is very scifi, from the tentacles of current bathing Black's floating body to the weird visual effects that follow him around for a while afterwards. Most of the rest of the movie is "realistic," except that it's totally unrealistic. The movie requires just as much suspension of disbelief as the scifi-iest scifi movie.So you've probably seen the "Sweded" versions of classic movies, like the clips of Ghostbusters and Robocop above. You'll probably be disappointed if you expect the whole movie to be about the wacky fan films which Jack Black and Mos Def make (with the help of an ever-increasing supporting cast). That segment, between Jack Black erasing all the videotapes and the fan-film operation getting shut down, occupies the middle segment of the film. But there's a lot of stuff before and afterwards.
The rest of Be Kind deals with gentrification and the destruction of old urban neighborhoods. The titular Be Kind, Rewind video store is in a condemned building in a crappy neighborhood in Passaic, NJ, which Jack Black describes as a "dump swamp" at one point. The store's only claim to fame is that jazz legend Fats Waller was born in the building, and you won't be particularly shocked when you find out halfway through that it's not even true. The store's owner, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) made up the Fats Waller myth to disguise from Mos Def (and himself) that they're trapped in hell with no way out.
The city wants to tear down the video store (where Glover also lives) and put up ugly condos in a bid to "improve" the neighborhood. As the movie goes on, you meet more and more characters who seem to be barely hanging on economically. The act of "Sweding" the Hollywood movies which Black erased becomes the ultimate empowerment for people who are slowly getting erased from their own neighborhood. It would be super depressing, if the movie didn't keep hammering home the idea that creating (or recreating) your own narratives can save you from being crushed. (I'm a sucker for that idea, so I totally bought into it.)
And then, after about 45 minutes of Black and Def's escalating silliness in "covering" 2001: A Space Odyssey and other random movies, the lawyers show up to put a stop to it. (One of those lawyers is played by Sigourney Weaver, who's already spent a lot of time being impersonated by a random African American guy in the Sweded Ghostbusters.) After all that yay-reclaiming-our-stories stuff, Weaver's character points out that the video store doesn't even own its tapes: the movies still belong to the studios, and Be Kind Rewind is just leasing them out, to rent them out in turn to other people.
I sort of expected the movie to turn into the battle over whether Black and Def should be allowed to create their own fan-films for profit. (That's what the trailer left me expecting, anyway.) But the fight is over really quickly, and nobody even utters the phrase "Transformative work." Larry Lessig should not see this movie, it'll just upset him. Within a couple minutes after Weaver and the other stooge show up, a steamroller is destroying all of the awesome tapes Mos Def and Jack Black have made.
I won't spoil what happens after that, but suffice to say the movie has a long coda (probably another half an hour or so) in which it proves, once and for all, that creativity can bring everybody together, and that the stories we create ourselves are better than the ones other people provide for us. And better, for that matter, than the "truth." (It all ties back into that myth about Fats Waller being born in the crappy video store.) It's a super uplifting ending, even as you're left with no doubt that all these people are royally fucked.
That's the other reason I want to claim Be Kind as a type of science fiction: not only does it have a science fictional McGuffin, and "Swede" several scifi movies, but it's also all about the power of invention. Both in the sense of making shit up, and in the sense of cobbling together solutions out of technology. It's not quite as great, or as clever, as Eternal Sunshine. But it's a worthy successor anyway.
Comments
Isn't this the movie that everyone is claiming was ripped off from Nickelodeon?
[www.slashfilm.com]
Some one posted a video on youtube claiming this movie is a rip off of a Nickelodeon show.
+ Watch video
You just made this movie sound a hundred thousand times more interesting.
@vurtscribe: @EDread83: Did you guys read this post? The whole thing? Where she talks about how "remaking" the videos isn't even the point of the movie?
@braak: I heard this was ripped off from Nickelodeon.
@braak: i am not saying there is any credibility to the theory just providing the video.
Can someone define "slipstream" for me?
@joemono: I hope the whole movie is about the wacky fan films which Jack Black and Mos Def make (with the help of an ever-increasing supporting cast). Otherwise I'll be disappointed.
@moff:
*hrrrrk*
EXPLODE!!1!!1one
@braak: I heard Barack Obama stole this movie from his friend and that HIS HOPE IS EVIL.
@joemono: slipstream is nonsense for: we can't call this scifi by our strict definition but we want to appropriate it as scifi because it's actually better than most scifi.
Michel Gondry is a construct of three people-the actual "Michel" is nothing more than the conduit of his related "genius." His disturbed brother is the source of most imagery/animations/illustrations- and his son contributes to shaping ideas---or so I have heard. I would not doubt that said offspring is aware of the Nick show.
This being said- I do not support claims of plagiarism or intellectual property- these notions are at best silly.
The problem with this film-and all of Gondry's non music vid work- is that it is hollow. Its hollowness makes it dangerous. The "genius" is how this hollowness is camouflaged. It is sinister.
Art direction as leaves and net over a bottomless abyss.
Throughout his career, Gondry seems to have been asking a fairly common question, not an easy question, but a common question: What is Real?
In this case, BE KIND, it seems as if he is positing that Hollywood is real- that the film should be humorous because of the "re-interpretations" are near budgetless- cheap, but creative.-----but, in actuality, they are neither- not cheap because of the amount of time the protagonists must have dedicated to the films they are "remaking"-and not creative because, outside of effects, the remakes stray very little from the original, they can't...for if they did, they would no longer be recognizable as re-makes or re-interpretations. Therefore-Hollywood is Real- and these are the copies- which only continues to support the "realness" of the original- follow?
another failure of the "independents"--worst marketing term ever--how can ivan reitman's son be considered indie, let alone coppolas?
Hollywood is garbage- another movie to support garbage...
and now they're gonna rape akira. awesome.
@Tim Faulkner: I like your definition more than the one I found at wikipedia.
I wasn't casting judgement on the movie. Honestly, I think it looks like a fun movie. I really like Mos Def and Jack Black isn't horrible. I just thought it was odd that suddenly teh intraweb is asploding with this tale of plagiarism.
And yes Braak, I did read the initial post I linked, I specifically chose that one because it was neutral in its discussion of the issue.
@vurtscribe: I heard you didn't even read the post!
@moff I am just saying that there's no credibility to your theory just by saying that. ;)
@Tim Faulkner: Plus 10!
@Matt_Damhave: As a left-handed person, I resent your use of the term sinister. And as a thinking person, I resent your poorly punctuated, not appreciably coherent argument for the hollowness of Michel Gondry's oeuvre.
@moff: Hey, I'm left-handed, too!
It was in the post, damn it!
@braak: I don't read posts. I get all my information from rumors. Or so they say.
@braak: P.S. We are smarter and more creative than our right-handed oppressors.
@moff: I've heard that, too. It was on Wikipedia. But someone told me that Wikipedia has a left-handed bias, so...
i heard the idea of left handed people being smarter was stolen from nickelodeon.
It's not just Gondry- It's the system that he is "outside-in." a system re-validated by the fence sitting-faux art-pseudo liberal premise of Be Kind.
insofar as diction, grammar, punctuation...etc.. I refuse to be bound by outmoded conservative forms of communication-i'll play by the illogical "rules" of english when they send me back to high school... 'til then- i'll speak the way I speak. either one "gets it" or doesn't.. "translation is the art of failure."
language only grows when lacerated like starfish. we are all being held back by those who forbid such operations.
when you can't attack the idea-you attack the form- from behind the shield of pseudonym.... wicked. chalk another one up for the real-nameless/faceless internet ciceros....
say "oeuvre" more- i heard it's "filmic"- herzog has an oeuvre- gondry has a collection of pop videos--there is a bit of a difference. one is a filmmaker- the other is an employee of record companies and production houses---can you guess which is which?
@Matt_Damhave: is there a prize if we guess right?
@Matt_Damhave: You also attack the form if the form results in the idea becoming incomprehensible.
Say what you want to about language and its evolution, it only works if everyone understands it, and, in order for that to happen, we've got to play by the same rules.
@EDread83: I had a video about that, but I can't find it, now. Some right-handed bastard has been using my computer.
"it only works if everyone understands it".......tell that to bob dylan, celine, ghostface, burroughs, bataille, jarry, ..etc... it's not about everyone understanding--it is about who needs to understand it. if one understands-then one- if none-none. no spilt milk... especially if you don't know what milk is.
@Matt_Damhave: Whoa. Attacking the Hollywood machine? Refusal to be bound by outmoded "rules"? If they don't understand you, it's their own fault?
I find your groundbreaking ideas intriguing. Perhaps you offer a newsletter to which one might subscribe?
Also: Oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre, oeuvre!
yeah i gotta say if you are going to attempt to communicate using a language, whether you believe in the rules of said language or not, you have to at least attempt to follow them in order to be even slightly understood. But i am just saying.
Back to the post though. I feel Gondry's movies and videos are breathtaking and i enjoy them very much. While there are similarities between the this movie and that kid's show, i am sure Gondry will be able to tackle the subject of home made movies in a way that will force us to question our humanity.......wait....what?!?!
Anyway i have been looking forward to this movie for some time now. I enjoyed Mos Def in Hitchhikers, i rock out to the D from time to time, and (coincidentally) watched The Science Of Sleep at least 3 times last weekend. This movie will be one i watch in theaters as well as probably pick up when it hits DVD.
edread- everyone loses.
@Matt_Damhave: we are talking about posts on a sci-fi blog right?!? Are you comparing your comments to artist's works of art? Dude if your comments are that deep you should totally write them down and make a book.
@EDread83: And if no one wants to buy it, that's OK. No spilt milk. I just wish I knew what milk was.
@Matt_Damhave: Yeah, there's something intensely disingenuous about posting comments on an internet site and then pretending not to care whether or not people can understand you.
But, all right, so you're the Bob Dylan of internet comments, and you're making some kind of artistic statement by being unintelligible. Maybe you're saying that intelligent discourse--where two or more people use the common principles of English to communicate information to each other--is itself stultifying.
Whatever; no one knows, or cares, what you're talking about, anyway.
Rock on! Two thumbs up!
@moff: Well, you wouldn't. Milk is the part of the privileged lifestyle of our right-handed oppressors.
@moff: i heard milk was something that was thought up for a special after school edition of Alex Mack on Nickelodeon but some guy in Wisconsin stole the idea for himself. I had a video of it but i cant find it, some asshole left handed person used my computer and now the buttons on my mouse are reversed.
Man. Somebody needs a pacifier and a nap.
Or is my use of English language and logic too "outmoded" to be understood?
@braak: They must keep it in the refrigerators I find so difficult to open!
@EDread83: I do have to say that left-handed people who actually mouse with their left hands kinda weird me out. No offense if anyone here does that.
(Check that out, Damhave! I just verbed "mouse"!)
@Plague: Seriously. We actually have a whole tag for this shit over at Gawker proper: [gawker.com]
@moff:
(snicker)
I wonder if IO9 will ever resort to the Gawker school of bannination
@Plague: I wonder if there's just some method of public castigation that could be set up. Like, you get the Shut Up, College tag built into your name, so that whenever you post, it appears right underneath.
@moff: That tag should be exported to the whole net. Work it into the next HTML standard or something. I like Braak's idea, too.
This comment thread made me very happy.
Thank you.
What ever happened to enjoying movies? I for one really want to see this. It looks highly entertaining. I hope to get a kick out of it. If I don't, then I'll be bummed. At least I won't sit and make broad statements about the emptiness or futility of "indie" films against Hollywood.
You just made this movie sound a hundred thousand times more interesting.
If by "more" you mean "less", I agree.
I've seen enough sentimental "this pile of junk may be a eyesore if not an actual menace, but it's OUR pile of junk" movies. I just wanted to see funny cheap remakes.
I think I'll skip it after all.
@desiredusername: Well, of course, by "more" I mean "more," so I guess it would be more accurate to say that you disagree.
Behold, the beauty of the movie review! I will now go see a movie that I will enjoy, you will avoid one that you wouldn't enjoy! Everybody wins! You hear that, Matt_Damhave? EVERYBODY WINS!
@braak: You're such a shill for the outmoded form-attackers. OK, I gotta go lacerate some starfish.
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