Be Kind Rewind

Odd little comedy from the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
and The Science of Sleep, Michel Gondry. The hallmarks are there, an odd little
film with a tenuous connection to reality.

You've probably heard the plot; an assistant in a video store (Mos Def)and his
idiot mate (Jack Black) inadvertently wipe all the tapes in the store. In a
panicky attempt to hide what they've done, they remake the movie that one of
the store's customers, who knows the owner, wants (Ghostbusters.) The tape gets
into the hands of her nephew, who thinks it's great, and insists that they make
more. A cottage industry of custom made remakes ensues.

Now, so far, and from what the trailers will tell you, this is a screwball
comedy in which Jack Black gets to ham it up something rotten. And it is, in
many ways, but there's a lot more to it than that. It's also an affectionate
piece which likens the demise independent cinema to the demise of small
neighbourhoods. Somehow, standard plot #12 (team of oddballs much raise cash to
fend off the bulldozers and save the school/shop/bar/whatever) gets involved,
and it all gets very It's A Wonderful Life by the end.

It's very entertaining, has a little message to deliver, which it does without
making too much of a big fuss about it, before going on its merry way. There's
nothing startlingly original here, but it does revisit quite a lot of familiar
ground in a fresh, offbeat way.