Be Kind Rewind

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Attentive readers may recall that I have very mixed feelings about the films of Michel Gondry. The three I had seen before Be Kind Rewind all left the same impression on me: that they had taken a lot of energy and imagination to create, but that the final product was just ok. There are a lot of great little moments, but the films themselves weren't strong as a whole. Often times this was due to the characters... he seemed to strive hard to make his movie insightful, but had no idea how to actually pull it off.

However, my gut was right on this one, and Be Kind Rewind is easily his best movie. The plot best plays into his aesthetic of clever visual effects for the sake of visual effects. And he doesn't try so hard to make a movie about people, he just sets up some likable characters. The movie is more along the lines of a Purple Rose of Cairo style tribute to the magic of cinema (the casting of Mia Farrow doesn't seem like an accident). And while I may not trust Gondry to tell me a compelling story about relationships, I definitely trust him to tell me about why movies are cool.

Also, kudos for the Sigourney Weaver cameo.