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Be Kind Rewind

Philippa Hawker, Reviewer
August 6, 2008

Be Kind Rewind starts slowly but builds steadily into a tender, funny examination of the attachments and connections that popular culture creates.

Be Kind Rewind.

Be Kind Rewind.

Genre
Comedy
Run Time
100 minutes
Rated
PG
Country
United States
Director
Michael Gondry
Rating
stars-3half

Michel Gondry's tale of memory and loss doesn't go into the emotionally intense territory of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; it's a lighter work but still an imaginative and singular pleasure. The movie's title is the name of a video and thrift store in Passaic, New Jersey, said to be the birthplace of jazz legend Fats Waller, whose legacy is a significant part of the story. Jack Black plays a walking embodiment of chaos who accidentally erases all the tapes in the video store while the owner is away. Desperate to make amends, he and the acting manager (Mos Def), with the help of a resourceful neighbour (Melonie Diaz), put together their own hilariously improvised versions of rentals such as Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2 and (most radically) Driving Miss Daisy. To their surprise, they become popular, but the store and the future of their videos-on-demand service is soon under threat. Be Kind Rewind starts slowly but builds steadily into a tender, funny examination of the attachments and connections that popular culture creates. The bonuses include a half-hour making-of and a grab-bag of featurettes.

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