Be Kind Rewind **
Michel Gondry, 2008
US
@ Pacific Place
As usual, in his ruminative review J. Hoberman nails it: "Such sentimentality might sound egregiously Spielbergistic, but Gondry strikes another chord: This illusion is an illusion."
What's particularly striking about the style of the film, apart from the visual effects, is the lack of focus on the speaking character. I'm not sure if the cutting is any faster or slower than usual, but frequently the actor delivering his lines is facing a corner, or not pictured, or, as during the break-in, in total darkness. This ties in well with Hoberman's point, I think. If we were constantly in close-ups looking for traces of heartbreak in their eyes as Mos Def and Danny Glover lose the video store, this would be a very different movie. As it is, we're quite distanced visually from the characters, and for me the emotional power of the closing scenes comes from the artifice; there's no sense of real possibility, which turns the whole story much darker. A bit like Jim Carrey's fresh start in Eternal Sunshine--while the effect of the indeterminate ending does depend on the viewer's inclinations, it seems very reasonable to assume that he's intentionally headed back toward a breakup as disastrous as the one he's just experienced, but the illusion of hope and a fresh start is all he's got. That is to say: how painful that the illusion of community provided here is so obviously illusory in the face of the interests of capital/private property that such a possibility is already (necessarily?) dead to us.
See also: IMDb | Metacritic | J. Hoberman review
Michel Gondry, 2008
US
@ Pacific Place
As usual, in his ruminative review J. Hoberman nails it: "Such sentimentality might sound egregiously Spielbergistic, but Gondry strikes another chord: This illusion is an illusion."
What's particularly striking about the style of the film, apart from the visual effects, is the lack of focus on the speaking character. I'm not sure if the cutting is any faster or slower than usual, but frequently the actor delivering his lines is facing a corner, or not pictured, or, as during the break-in, in total darkness. This ties in well with Hoberman's point, I think. If we were constantly in close-ups looking for traces of heartbreak in their eyes as Mos Def and Danny Glover lose the video store, this would be a very different movie. As it is, we're quite distanced visually from the characters, and for me the emotional power of the closing scenes comes from the artifice; there's no sense of real possibility, which turns the whole story much darker. A bit like Jim Carrey's fresh start in Eternal Sunshine--while the effect of the indeterminate ending does depend on the viewer's inclinations, it seems very reasonable to assume that he's intentionally headed back toward a breakup as disastrous as the one he's just experienced, but the illusion of hope and a fresh start is all he's got. That is to say: how painful that the illusion of community provided here is so obviously illusory in the face of the interests of capital/private property that such a possibility is already (necessarily?) dead to us.
See also: IMDb | Metacritic | J. Hoberman review
Labels: 2 Stars, 2008, Michel Gondry, US
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