Is there a movie that, growing up, you had the DVD for in your house, and you don’t really know how it got there? You've watched it a million times, but you don't really know how it came into your life? For me, that was Be Kind Rewind. This 2008 comedy directed by Michel Gondry, known better for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starred Jack Black at the height of his comic prowess, and Mos Def, a man more commonly known for his music than his movies. This movie really flew under the radar, even with Hollywood A-lister Jack Black playing a classic goofball character, and famed actor Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon) in the role of Mr. Fletcher. The premise is pretty simple: Mike, one video store employee (Mos Def), and Jerry, his paranoid slightly crazy friend (Jack Black), attempt to remake popular movies in order to keep the video store alive after erasing all the tapes. Not bad.
There is a lot going on initially in this movie, but it is all presented steadily and pretty efficiently. Mike sees Mr. Fletcher as a father figure because his dad abandoned him, so he tries to do everything he can to impress Mr. Fletcher. They also bond over the fact that Jerry is kind of insane. He is paranoid that the government is tracking our brains (or something?), so you see the three of them wearing colanders on their heads at the beginning. When Mr. Fletcher leaves town to visit some friends and reminisce about Fats Waller (a real jazz pianist whom Mike worships), he leaves Mike in charge of the store. It is also established that the store is close to critically failing and the Video Store crew is on its way kicked out.
Now, after Jerry and Mike go on their "coup" to overthrow the local power plant, which ends up being Mike just ditching and Jerry getting electrocuted to the point of magnetization, Jerry erases all of the video tapes by touching them. Because magnets and film don't get along. This is a funny premise, and one that, while whacky, has remnants of relatability through character interaction that allows the audience a way in. We don't want to see Mike disappoint Mr. Fletcher, and things just got exponentially worse very quickly. So what do the two do? They buy a camera and start to remake popular movies such as Ghostbusters, Rush Hour, and Robocop for local customers in place of the original tapes.
Ok, now, at this point, this movie has to convince you of itself through its characters and their motivations. This premise needs a certain amount of suspension of disbelief from its audience to be engaging. The people of their town have to believably be excited about these "home-video" remake versions of popular films. Which this movie does very convincingly. The way that Michel Gondry portrays a community's sense of local pride, and its ability to get behind its fellow members in order to preserve a local institution like "Mr. Fletcher's Video Store" is extremely endearing. Yes there are plot lines that have more or less been transparently dropped, like what about Jerry's government paranoia? Makes you think it was more or less just used as a plot device to get the tapes erased. But it doesn't really matter at that point. You enjoy seeing the characters rise to local fame as their movies get both more outrageous and more ambitious, eventually employing the local customers themselves in the films, and calling their brand of specialized pictures "Sweded."
By the end of the movie there is a classic conflict of the townspeople coming together to try and fight "the man" who is trying to tear down the video store by making a full length semi-biographically accurate film about Fats Waller's life. There is a long montage of people from all walks of life coming together to contribute to the film, as well as excitement being generated for its premiere. By the end, the "suits" come into the store to shut everything down just as the gang is attempting to premiere their movie. The camera pans out of the video store and into the street, as we see the entire town coming together to watch all of themselves in the film. It is heartwarming and fulfilling, and a really great "it doesn't matter to Rocky that he didn't win the fight" moment. This movie illustrated to me, at the time a very young and impressionable film enthusiast, the power that creating a project can have in bringing people together. The sense of community you feel as the entire town is watching the final picture is extremely contagious. It's as if you helped make the movie, and are watching the fruits of all your labor present themselves, surrounded by other people who are as excited as you. This was a very formative emotion for me at a young age, and, when I look back at it, one of the defining movies that led to me pursuing filmmaking in my life. It's campy, cheesy, slightly outdated, and by no means perfect, but Be Kind Rewind, is a masterful heartfelt comedy about the power of bringing people together through storytelling.
And the jingle is not bad. "Be Kind Rewind. Videos A La Carte. BOP"
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