Who would have thought Mos Def and Jack Black would be a comedy duo? I guess it is in the long tradition of rapper being film stars that Mos Def must follow.
Be Kind, Rewind is the first good art film to arrive in 2008. It is written and directed by Michel Gonfry. Gonfry is the great French director who started in music videos and moved on to film; like Spike Jonze. He made my favorite film of 2006, The Science of Sleep.
He did another great job with this one. It is interesting, funny and really really sad. The film starts off slow and finish to a rousing finish without a happy ending. Instead, it has the poor will inherit the earth kind of thing going on.
The story of the film is that Mr. Fletcher, a kindly old man (played by Danny Glover) runs a video rental store in a depressing part of New Jersey with ultra-nice guy Mike (played by Mos Def). Jerry, a crazy guy (played by Jack Black) owns a nearby business, is always hanging around. One day, when Mr. Fletcher is away scouting other video stores because the city is set to demolish his building due to urban redevelopment and building code violations, Jerry erases all the videos. So, in a last ditch effort to keep the store running, Mike and Jerry shoot the movies themselves; starring them, just two guys with a video camera in the great state of New Jersey. Along the way, they pick up Alma (played by Melonie Diaz) in a dry cleaners store. This is when the movie picks up speed. The chemistry between the three in one of the best part of film, and something I haven’t seen in film yet.
After a bunch of thugs liked their rendition of Ghostbusters, all three of them start making sweded films. “Sweded” means that they made there own versions of the film. Just like previous Gonfry movies, this wear his stamp comes in with brilliant homemade looking props and art. The film really gets fun and funny here. It picks up a warmth and joy. Then the Gonfry takes it all the way. A harsh reality folds in and never leaves. You are left feeling “Well, at least they tried.” : ( I left feeling really sad.
It really had a Chaplin feel to it. Everyone in the movie was poor and ethnic. They lost every time. The “Man” was always after them. Still, they persevered. It was shot in very urban industrial parts of town; in poorest of areas.
Nevertheless, you have not seen this before. Maybe you have lived it. Maybe you recreated films in your backyard growing up with your video camera. I did. It was like beautiful homage to that.
I have a feeling that a couple years from now and going forward Be Kind, Rewind will be one of those college and hipster cult movies that will be studied and copied into culture.
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