I should say first that I am about to wholeheartedly support the world viewing Be Kind Rewind in the face of what I believe will be a lot of poopooing over this movie (it’s currently “rotten” over at Rotten Tomatoes). I will also say I am not a Michel Gondry fanboy or, even, somebody who could pass for a hipster (that segment of the population making Wes Anderson, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze and Puma economically viable). I saw Be Kind Rewind at Sundance 2008 thinking it would be a pallet cleanser from long nights of editing interviews and watching the really challenging stuff. But Be Kind Rewind was the most subversive movie at Sundance this year. So much so, I question the programmers even knew it.

The premise is straight from a sub-genre of comedy that has brought us such classics as Ski Patrol and One Crazy Summer (a perfect ball of ice cream for Gondry to hide his medicine in). Two slackers who while away their days in a hole-in-the-wall hangout–owned by a kindly old proprietor–have to raise more cash than they’ve ever seen or the hangout gets the wrecking ball. Antics ensue. The antics are brought to us by Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) as they remake a library of hit Hollywood movies with a VHS camcorder when Jack Black inadvertently erases all the tapes at their neighborhood video shop (the hangout). The montages of their backyard productions are the stuff people will go to see this movie in droves for, and they are fall-down funny. However, these montages end partway through the story to make room for the proverbial “plot.”

I predict most people will call the second part of Be Kind Rewind meandering, disjointed, sentimental and other adjectives used when a movie doesn’t stay on the trajectory we want. It feels… wrong. It feels wrong because, whether audiences are conscious of it or not, we all know how the conventions of this comedy are supposed to play out. When Gondry doesn’t let them play out, it feels like he can’t make up his mind what kind of movie he’s making.

Jack Black plays Jack Black (again) but his dominance digresses so the neighborhood can make a silent movie, which is mostly them indulging in homemade cinematic spectacles. Mos Def has a love interest that never goes anywhere. The kindly old proprietor (Danny Glover) wonders around a DVD superstore taking notes. The MPAA calculates that Jack Black and Mos Def will have to spend over 3,000 years in prison for all of their copyright violations, then disappear after squashing their videos. The movie feels sloppy and a little corny by the end. This is why critics will dismiss Gondry’s attempt as inept, but I think he’s brilliant.

Be Kind Rewind is fluffy piece of cake, handmade with lots of sprikles and icing decor, containing within its layers a subversive message. Basically, see this Jack Black movie so I can show you why you should stop watching Jack Black movies, and other formulaic, flat movie watching experiences Hollywood delivers. The blockbuster movies that the neighborhood people “swede” (remake) in Be Kind Rewind are a hodge podge of their favorite movie moments with them in the starring roles. It doesn’t matter they’re so obviously unprofessional, they’re having fun. More fun, in fact, than they had passively watching the original movie.

That the second half of this movie meanders a bit is Gondry taking his own medicine. He’s having fun making a movie with bunch of his most loved comedic pieces swirled together and not bending his knee to following a conventional plot (that part of most comedies where the audience glazes over, anyway). He’s not just telling the audience it’s more fun to make their own movies rather than sit and watch them, he’s showing them how much fun he’s having. I even believe having Jack Black play his one-trick pony that’s been so exploited by Hollywood, is Gondry showing us how lame the same ol’, same ol’ from Hollywood compares to even our smallest creative endeavors. The very weak spots critics will snub this movie for are where Gondry’s message comes on strongest, if you’re listening.