The Tagline: “Sometimes the best movies are the ones we make up.â€
The Translation: It’s YouTube: The Movie!
The Gist: The trailer for the latest head trip from Gallic genius Michel Gondry was shown at Comic-Con this month, and a pirated version has made its way to YouTube. The movie looks thoroughly charming; Jack Black and Mos Def play video-store clerks who accidentally erase their VHS inventory and resolve to reshoot every film in the store, starring themselves. (Black faking his way through the Ghostbusters theme is especially excellent.) True, the shaky camera and bad audio at the Comic-Con presentation means a few of the jokes get missed, but this still seems appropriate to the DIY pleasures of Be Kind Rewind itself; we wouldn’t be surprised if Gondry watches this, loves its funky feel, and forces New Line to make this the real trailer. Which would be fitting, because Be Kind Rewind resembles no other Hollywood picture so much as it resembles a compilation of the greatest YouTube movie reenactments ever. Is this how Hollywood co-opts the YouTube revolution, the endless Lego Austin Powerses and Big Lebowski restagings — by doing them on their own, but with Jack Black and Mos Def?