The Cinema of the Four

Be Kind, Rewind

Of all the types of movies that it has been my pleasure to investigate during my years as a consulting movie detective, there is one that remains a puzzle. Usually a small-budget, independent film, these movies usually purport to be comedies, but are, at their heart, simply odd. Some, like “Napoleon Dynamite,” find an audience. Others don’t find an audience, but strike a chord with some critics. And then there are those that spend the rest of their existences sitting on DVD store shelves hoping to get rented by the unwary.

In the case of this weekend’s “Be Kind, Rewind,” I have still not determined which of those categories it will eventually fall into. It’s a weird junkshop of a movie, driven by the energies of actor Jack Black and a strange fascination with Fats Waller. It seems to be a tribute to that can-do energy and creativity of the low-budget Ed Woods of fim-making, with a nod toward the power of community. And yet . . . (For there is always an “and yet . . .” with such films.)

The basic story is that of two schmucks (Black and Mos Def, whom one might remember from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”) and a video store, and how they accidentally erase all the tapes while the owner is gone. They then set about re-filming all the movies, enlisting the aid of very expressive local cutie played by Melonie Diaz. Although “Be Kind, Rewind” starts slowly, the pace picks up when the movie-making takes off. When a copyright lawyer show up to shut the operation down (played, interestingly enough, by Sigourney Weaver whose part in “Ghostbusters” was played earlier in the movie by a black male mechanic in a wig), one almost fears the movie will grind to a halt.

But the movie doesn’t, and its plucky child-like main characters soldier on to the film’s bittersweet conclusion. “Be Kind, Rewind” is one of those films that a lot of audience members will rise from their seats, go “That sucked!” and go home to watch reality television. Still others will be utterly baffled, yet maintain a quiet pretense that they understood everything that just happened, nodding sagely that yes, this was a quality film. There are some Zen masters of film out there who will look at this koan of a movie and find Nirvana, I’m certain. But as for this consulting movie detective, I must inevitably consign this one to the unsolved cases pile.