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Be kind rewind clothing12/23/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() That connection is carried over into the DVD’s only real bonus feature, a short tribute to the Passaic neighborhood where the movie was filmed, using many of the neighborhood’s inhabitants as extras. Action/adventures, comedies, that’s it.” The same could be said of the effect that the proposed condominiums would have on the Passaic, New Jersey, neighborhood they replace. Late in the film, store owner Elroy Fletcher (Danny Glover) says, “To hell with documentaries, oldies, cult movies. Ultimately, the film settles on the importance of community and film’s place in creating community - there’s an especially nice scene where an impromptu discussion of The Lion King overtakes a diner - as well as an elegy for quirkiness. There are some genuinely funny moments (an improbable camouflage scene against a chain link fence), some truly lyrical ideas (old men gathering to listen to Fats Waller records in the train car where Waller died), and even some genuine film criticism (ribbing of Driving Miss Daisy as a condescending film). Torn between sentimentality and madcap comedy, the film fails to serve either master particular well. To his credit, Gondry doesn’t overdo it - not every reimagining is outlandish or overly stylized, and he saves most of his tricks for a pivotal Fats Waller “documentary” - but the rest of the film isn’t cohesive enough to compensate for the fact that the visual hocus pocus is fairly subdued. Especially when Mike and Jack must create their films with absolutely no budget, resorting to tricks like using a refrigerator as the obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey, a bucket of ketchup for the pivotal scene in Carrie, and tomato sauce pizzas standing in for pools of blood for their remake of Boyz N the Hood. So the premise of Be Kind Rewind holds all kinds of visual possibilities. Gondry, though, stands tall as the director of the excellent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and as the creative mind behind many of Bjork’s most innovative music videos, not to mention the Lego-rific “Fell in Love with a Girl” video that introduced the White Stripes to the mainstream. ![]() Long before Michel Gondry came up with the term “sweded” to name the remade films of Be Kind Rewind, regular people - armed with increasingly affordable cameras and software - had been turning films on their heads for years. In 2003, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, the product of three Mississippi kids remaking the first Indiana Jones chapter in 1982, began screening at theatres on the arthouse circuit (the rights were also bought to produce a biographical film about Adaptation‘s creation). YouTube is filled with “trailers” that paint well-known movies as different types of films ( Sleepless in Seattle as a stalker film, The Shining as a heartwarming father/son dramedy, Toy Story blended with Requiem for a Dream). The results of that moment, however, tie in to an increasingly popular trend of fans revisiting, tweaking, and toying with films. ![]() Well, the whole part about Jerry’s magnetized body erasing all of the store’s tapes might be. In some ways, the premise of Be Kind Rewind isn’t that outlandish. Quickly, though, the pair’s efforts gain fans and the store begins making serious money. At first, it’s to appease irate customers. In a panic, the two begin shooting their own versions of the films. After tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorist Jerry gets magnetized attempting to sabotage a power plant, he accidentally erases all of the video store’s tapes. The misfits in question are Mike (Mos Def) and Jerry (Jack Black), a bumbling pair of friends just coasting through life. A planned condo project threatens a struggling video store in a depressed part of town, and it’s up to a couple of misfits to save the day. At its heart, the plot of Be Kind Rewind is pretty straightforward. ![]()
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