the next film i'm adding to the SGP film club is be kind rewind, written and directed by michel gondry.  i'm suggesting this film for two reasons.  even though everyone loves eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, i think still be kind rewind is a less heady introduction to gondry, and certainly less dense than the science of sleep.  the point is, gondry is a greatly thought-provoking artist to me, and if you're not into him, i want you to be.  truth be told, the very specific thing i was studying in college was music video production.  i tailored my major, one of the beauties of emerson college.  michel gondry has done some amazing videos, and so i felt siamese-twinned to him pretty early on.  by the way, i still find it really hard to believe he's directing the green hornet.  well, we all evolve.  oh yeah, the second reason i'm blasting be kind rewind is because i'm no fan of jack black, but i still really like this movie.  another film i love despite jack black is jesus' son.  you should also watch that film.  it's great, but the book by denis johnson is better, and also the most shoplifted book in history.  

though less so than usual, be kind rewind is another one of gondry's unusual premises.  danny glover's character owns a video store that rents only videos (no DVDs) (and what more, no Bluray), but is about to be shut down by the city due to gentrification.  sound familiar?  he leaves town to get some ideas on how to save the store/clear his head, leaving mike (mos def, awesome) in charge of the store.  erstwhile, jerry (jack black, kind of cool, i guess) becomes magnetized after an accident in a factory, enters the video store, and erases all the tapes.  trouble ensues.  in an effort to fix the problem, they begin making their own versions of the movies.  more trouble ensues.  

they do ghostbusters (above), robocop (below), driving miss daisy, king kong, and a boatload more.  and one of the coolest things, and one of the things i like most about this movie is how fans were inspired to start sweding (the term used by gondry) their own movies.  just check out youtube, there are so many.  methinks hilarie and i need to get to sweding.  any requests?

i love mia farrow's performance in this film, one of my favorite performances i've seen in a while...  a bit of a curmudgeon, but quite soft.

with reference to the photo above, please notice that gummo is listed as one of the movies to be sweded in the near future. please note that i don't ever want to see a sweded version of gummo.  nor do i ever want to watch the real version of gummo again.  it's terrifying.  gondry has a sense of humor.

without giving too much more of the plot away, the movie concludes in a way that is really romantic to me. an entire community coming together to make a film.  [note: gondry used a lot of non-actors from passaic, new jersey where this was shot in the film, not only as extras, but as supporting roles.]  it's pretty magical, and even though i've talked to many people who didn't really like this movie, i think the end is what sells it for me.  it's reminiscent of what's going on in our SGP community, i think.  see for yourself.

keep it reel/n.gray