Brothers and sisters of the YouTube generation, this is the film you have been waiting for - two guys find fame in making low-budget rip-offs of popular movies on a home camcorder - and will probably have you kicking yourselves you didn’t think of it first.

It’s the story of Mike and Jerry (Mos Def and Jack Black) who are forced to remake classic movies after every film in the failing video store where Mike works is erased by Jerry - magnetised after a botched sabotage attempt on the local power station he thinks is melting his brain. To their surprise their films turn out to be a hit, and as word spreads and their popularity grows they have to pull in friends and neighbours to fill out the expanding cast and crew demands, helping revitalise not just the business but the entire community.

If there was anyone born to make this film it is writer/director Michel Gondry, the man who since childhood has been making the most innovative of films with the bare minimum of resources, a host of ingenious camera trickery and a shit-load of cardboard. It is laden with all his signature touches and deceptively simple filming techniques to achieve an eye-catching spectacle that will have you thinking it would be simple enough to do yourself, yet with the kind of visual flair that only a true aesthetic genius could think of. One scene in particular stands out - a montage of the remaking of several movies, all in one single tracking shot as the characters run from scene to scene - bringing to mind his earlier music video work that was itself stunning.

The amateur feel is carried through all aspects of the film, from the improvised dialogue down to the supporting cast of charming local residents who are so endearingly cute when making the larger scale films that it will pull you in and really make you feel for the characters and what they are trying to achieve. This highlights another of the sensitive Gondry’s strengths in creating genuine pathos and sentiment that steers well clear of schmaltz.

Where it falls short, however, is that you are left feeling that it could have been so much more. With the free reign the main cast have to improvise, things feel a little loose. Talented though they are (Mos Def especially takes further strides away from that rapper-slash-actor stigma to showcase the skills already seen in films such as 16 Blocks and the comic aptitude of Hitchhikers Guide) there’s not enough structure there as should be laid down by a script. This is most evident in Jack Black’s case as he runs riot playing that same hyperactive, zany-eyed, over-enunciating Jack Black he always plays, which works so much better when it is reigned in, as in School of Rock. Though there are funny moments - never more hilarious than when watching the multiple movie homages they make that we all know and love - things do slacken off all too often and the resulting gaps are more pleasant than humorous.

As it is, Be Kind Rewind ploughs the same furrow as Gondry’s previous opus, The Science of Sleep, in that while it is undoubtedly clever and sweet, the abundant ideas in his head aren’t always communicated to the audience, and the visual elements are left to make up for the lack of substance. But his heart is in the right place, even if the telling doesn’t quite live up to it. It is genuinely touching, and you will leave with your heart well and truly warmed, but it just doesn’t have that ‘wow’ factor you would hope for.

by Phil Dixon

Be Kind Rewind
Jack Black interview

Tenacious D
The Pick of Destiny - Jack and Kyle interviews