Review of Be Kind Rewind (2008) by Chads. — 22 Feb 2008

When people from this dying vicinage in New Jersey stop being mere spectators of Mike's homemade films and begin to participate in its production, "Be Kind Rewind" reveals itself to be a sly send-up of American life.

According to most Europeans, people who reside stateside, have no organic culture; our shared experience is formed by popular culture. By evoking the filmic tradition of Italian neorealism(real people shot in real locations), it's suggested that these no-budget remakes of major studio fare are cultural byproducts of the lazy and passive American, people who waste their entire lives endlessly staring at a screen(or a talking box), watching other people's stories(rather than creating their own); that's the pitiful withdrawal from their memory banks; their collective reminiscing of a beloved film.

Finally, when the motley film crew get the desist from shooting order by Hollywood copyright lawyers(read: Mussolini regime), Jerry(Jack Black) and Mike(Mos Def) stop being image thieves, and start production on their own "Bicycle Thieves"(Original French title: "Ladri di biciclette"), a quasi-documentary about a jazz great from New Jersey(not Harlem; perhaps, this is an oblique reference to how Americans are bad at geography).

"Be Kind Rewind" is too weird to be simply a film about the death of the VHS format. Since it's a period piece(around 1999?), allusions to "You Tube", or other current narcissistic forms of "artistic" expression might not be applicable.