I thought Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was good, but overrated: there was a great story in there, but too much time, often redundant time, was spent with the non Jim Carey and Kate Winslet characters. I missed The Science of Sleep completely, and no one said I should see it. Gondry's new movie had me at "starring Mos Def and Jack Black." The trailer is one that I have watched again and again, and I hope the film is half as good as the trailer, though I have a slight fear it won't be.
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Eternal Sunshine is the movie which put me off movies for several years. I thought that the characters and their relationship was totally shallow and unlikable. It was an example of a movie so full of itself and it's own cleverness that it thought it could eschew all internal humanity in hopes that the alterna-hipsters in the audience would transpose their own experience over the paper-thin avatars projected on the screen.
My wife and I rented Science of Sleep yesterday... it's due back Sunday, we'll see it before then. Please Be Kind looks funny.
I don't know, I think the shallowness of Joel and Clementine's relationship is intended, and adds to the poignancy. We see that it fell apart pretty quickly, and while the film's message is essentially the "heartbreak is a part of love, and worth it for the good times" cliche, there's no comfort in knowing that it's gonna fall apart pretty quickly again. There's also sadness in the (viewer's) realisation that the apologetic, forgiving Clementine is only Joel's idealised version of her.
I enjoyed the supporting cast, too. It's a film I've warmed to a lot on repeat viewings.
I haven't seen any trailers for Be Kind Rewind, but the concept and cast are stellar.
Oh, man, I love Eternal Sunshine. Too bad it left you cold. And it's too bad nobody told you you should see Science of Sleep. I'll go ahead and take the initiative: You Should See It!! It was my favorite movie of 2006 (although I think Children of Men was probably the best movie that year), and I am ready to see any Michel Gondry movie sight unseen. I also recommend Human Nature; it's pretty wacky, with some interesting stuff about, well, human nature.
But I love Science of Sleep; Gael Garcia Bernal is really funny, and Gondry's visual ideas are so goofy and low-tech-looking. And it's just a sweet, cute story. Notably, I think Gondry wrote it, as opposed to directing Charlie Kaufman's scripts for Eternal Sunshine and Human Nature. I like Kaufman, but he does seem kind of pessimistic and dark, while Gondry is more warm and bright. So there's that.
As for Be Kind Rewind, I'm looking forward to it; it's another one that Gondry wrote, I believe. It should be pretty fun, I expect, although I kind of dislike the bits in the trailer where the evil companies shut them down and the people rise up to complain. But I bet that won't be as big a deal in the movie. I trust Gondry to give us something sweet and fun.
i am just a huge Gondry fan, even of his Bjork videos and french telly commercials. His imagery and imagination are quite simply, stunning. As is his inventiveness and techniques. However, one thing I've noticed is that when he is given full autonomy or close to, his imagery can become too etheral. that is, the visual loses it's grounding and can become so floaty that it's beauty is dampened or clouded over by boredom.
anyway. still have to see science of sleep. but i wana see this, even i do get the feeling it suffers from the "funny trailer = unfunny disappointing movie" disease
I AM IN THE STUDIO ON MY NEW LAPTOP! WHEEEEEEE
Sara, I'm totally in sync with you about Gondry, especially the music videos. The "Works of Michel Gondry" DVD that collects his videos and commercials and whatnot is pretty awesome. He comes up with some incredible concepts, like that Kylie Minogue video where she's walking around an intersection, and on each revolution, a double is added for her and all the background characters. It's an amazing feat. That Gondry is a cool dude.
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