Eye Candy #124

Trailer Tuesday 6/29

Music Monday 6/28

Movie Review: Be Kind Rewind

PLOT:

In Passaic, NJ, Elroy Fletcher runs a video store in a condemned building he claims was the birthplace of Fats Waller. Fletcher goes on a Waller centennial trip, leaving his foster son Mike in charge of the store. Mike’s peculiar friend Jerry tries to sabotage a power station and nearly electrocutes himself, getting magnetized in the process. He inadvertently erases every tape in the store. Mike and Jerry hatch an plan to hide the disaster by making a homemade “Ghostbusters” to rent to a woman whom Fletcher will be phoning to check on them. Soon, with help, their homemade versions of films develop a cult following. Will this new business save the store and the building? What about Fats?

REVIEW:

What did I like?

Video store. Remember the days when we couldn’t just turn on our devices and have instant access to a vast library of films, but rather had to go to a physical location and search for the movie we wanted to see. Heaven forbid if all the copies were checked out and we would have to wait for one to be returned! *SIGH* I miss the video store. Interesting thing…this is set in modern day (I believe this was released in 2008?), which is way before the streaming wars. Netflix was still primarily a DVD by mail company (do they still do that?) and hadn’t forced Blockbuster out of business…yet. The video store in this film only features VHS, which I found interesting because most store, even the mom and pop variety, were completely on the DVD kick and exploring Blu ray at the time, if I recall. It was just a nice bit of nostalgia to see the VHS tapes on the shelves.

Fats. If you keep up with this blog, then it is fairly obvious that I am a jazz aficionado. That said, I will admit that Fats Waller is not one I’m particularly knowledgeable about. I’m not as bad as the kids in the film who when asked to name a Fats Waller song for some reason started singing Notorious B.I.G. and nursery rhymes, but I need to learn more about the man. To my knowledge, there aren’t many films on the subject of Waller, which is a shame because he does cast a huge shadow on the world of jazz. He may be a bit of a macguffin, for lack of a better term, in this film, but I can guarantee some folks went and read up and learned something about him after watching this picture.

DIY. For so many years, movie companies have had the monopoly on making movies. Today, anyone with a camera can make a movie and upload it to Youtube, Tik Tok, or wherever. Now, the idea is different in this film, at least until the end, but the same principle applies. These guys are making their own movies and putting them out there for people to see (because Jack Black’s character managed to get magnetized and erase all the tapes in the shop). At first, they do this just to keep the store in business, but as word of mouth spreads, it becomes a way to unite the community. How can you fault them for that?

What didn’t I like?

Gentrification. A secondary plot, that really doesn’t come into play fully until the last act, is the city’s desire to demolish the store and “improve” the neighborhood. Look, this is an older neighborhood and not the most aesthetically pleasing, but this is where this community lives. When cities want to “improve” these neighborhoods, all they do is kick everyone out so that they can build fancy apartments and/or overpriced stores in its stead. Nothing is put back the way it was and those that were kicked out are have to find a new home, despite having lived in the same spot for some 30, 40, 50 years. I applaud the film for touching on this topic, but the act and how the city officials were so callous and uncaring with is made me want to go in my TV screen and punch them in the face…or worse!

Close the store. In a pivotal scene from Clerks, Dante and Randall close the store to go on the roof and play hockey. While up there a string of characters consistently ask, “are you open”, despite the giant sign saying “back in an hour”. When Mike and Jerry (Mos Def and Jack Black, respectively) leave to film the “sweded” movies, I thought back to that. Now, it is shown that this store doesn’t do much business, but you never know when someone may come in, especially with the amount of time it takes to film a movie. We’re talking hours, just to make a 30 minute version of Ghostbusters. Maybe I’m reading too much into that, though.

Yes, you are the bad guy! Right as it looks like our heroes have pulled off a miracle and saved the store, enter a cameo by Sigourney Weaver as some sort of Federal copyright officer, I’m not exactly sure what her title is. She and her lackey seize all the sweded movies and take them outside to be destroyed, citing that little warning at the beginning of all videos. Depending on what side you’re on, she says something to the effect of “…and they thing we’re the bad guy” because the studios are losing thousands of dollars on these films (as if they don’t have enough money already). Copyright law is to protect intellectual property, such as black artists having their music stolen by the likes of Elvis, Lynyrd Skynrd, etc, not for movie studios to send lawyers and lackeys down at the slightest hint that they are losing money. Heaven forbid they don’t have a couple of $20 bills to light their cigars with!

Final verdict:

What did I think of Be Kind Rewind? At the end of the credits, there is a website address to see all the sweded videos from the film. If you search Youtube, there are a ton of sweded films, which is surprising because this was a modest hit at best. Not many people know about it’s existence. Personally, I dig it, but I like movies and jazz, so this is right up my alley. If you go into this with high expectations, you will be seriously disappointed. There is an independent comedy feel to this film that really makes it work and seeing the community unite to save the video store is sure to warm your heart. I highly recommend this to you and yours!

4 out of 5 stars

Eye Candy #123

Trailer Tuesday 6/22

Music Monday 6/21

Eye Candy #122

What’s good? #62

With so much stuff on the various streaming services, it can be a little overwhelming finding something to watch, especially when one scrolls through, seeing many possibilities, but nothing that in particular that stands out. With that said, the purpose of these weekly posts is to share something that i watch on the service. Hopefully it will help someone find something new…or keep them from something they might have wasted their time with otherwise.

This week I’m going to cover…

Genre: Sitcom, comedy, sports, kids & family
Duration: 2 seasons (39 episodes; ~22 min each)
Cast: Brec Bassinger, Coy Stewart, Jackie Radinsky, Buddy Handleson, Dorien Wilson, Lilimar, Haley Tju
Streaming Service: Netflix

On a while the other day, I decided to click on this show thinking, “how bad is this going to be?” You see, in my head, I was thinking this was going to preach about feminism, girl power, all men bad, and all that jazz. I could not have been more wrong! Other than the expected mentions of Bella being a girl quarterback (one can argue they bring that up a few too many times), all the politics that one would assume to follow are non-existent in Bella and the Bulldogs.

The plot of this show revolves around a struggling small middle school football team. If I recall, while at practice a ball hits the cheerleaders. Bella, being a huge football fan, throws it back, showing her incredible arm strength, impressing the coach. Of course, she is recruited, but not without controversy, including displacing the current quarterback (who goes on to be a star receiver), a coach who is very old school in his thinking, dating a player on the rival team, etc. The rest of the show deals with teen issues, drama, and the kind of stuff you would expect from something of this nature.

Being a Nickelodeon sitcom, budget is limited and set changes are few and far between. I have to mention the football field, though. Those of us that are fans of old movies, before the onset of shooting on location and CGI, are accepting of shooting on a soundstage. In some cases the sets are just papier-mache places in front of a painting. For this show, the football field is just a patch of artificial turf and some stadium decorations. Actually, it reminds me more of how they would do a football sketch on Saturday Night Live. What I’m getting at is, the set is far from what a real field would look like. It feels as fake as it actually is. At first, I was going with the cheesiness, but seeing as this is a show that lasted longer than a handful of episodes, they needed to upgrade that field.

The cast is a bunch of unknowns, but they do play off each other very well and feel like genuine middle schoolers (as opposed to the 20-30 yr olds that typically would play these parts). Brec Bassinger, best known from Stargirl, does a great job playing the titular Bella. What is most impressive is that Bella is a fan of football and still a girly girl (see the special pink locker room they make for her). It seems that anytime a girl is good at sports in TV and movies she has to be more of a tomboy type, so this was refreshing. Other notable cast members are Coy Stewart, best known as Lorenzo from Mr. Iglesias, who plays Troy and Dorien Wilson, perhaps best known as Professor Ogilve from The Parkers, as Coach.

I was thinking about this the other day, why is it that you have to go to Nickelodeon or Disney channel to find quality sitcoms. What I mean by that is, shows that are actually funny and don’t shove and agenda down your throat or rely on sex jokes. I’m all for all kinds of comedy, but first and foremost, it has to be funny. Bella and the Bulldogs isn’t the best made or funniest show in the world, but it is very entertaining. Netflix currently only has the first season, but I hear Paramount+ has both seasons. Check it out sometime!

Trailer Tuesday 6/15