Science of Sleep suffered from a lack of a cohesive story. You just weren’t sure what the f=ck was going on.

Be Kind Rewind was overcompensation. I kept asking for more ingenuity and way less of a contrived plot that I just didn’t care about.

There’s no doubt that Gondry is ingenious visually, it will be interesting to see if he decides to try and tell more of his own stories or work from someone else’s script.

Jon, you had once talked about “minor Kaufmans”, films that showed the writer’s talent but weren’t developed into masterpieces of the “Being John Malkovich” variety. “Human Nature” easily fits into the “minor Kaufman” realm.

These are Gondry’s movies. Their intentional handmade qualities make them precious, real, like something you or I might do if we had all the time and imagination in the world. And that is what makes moments like when Black and Def freeze against the chicken wire fence so astonishing. How’d he do that?? We never get that engaged with the de rigueur big budget CGI anymore.

Why do the citizens of Pasaic get so into the Sweded movies? Because the boys have Sweded all the CGI out and brought the stories back down to earth, recapturing the magic of the movies. Gondry has taken up the torch from the original magician of film, Georges Melies, and thank God.

You’re right–almost no one rewinds anymore. VHS is a dead format. In fact, when I first heard the set-up for the film, I just assumed that it would be set in the 80s or 90s. It wasn’t until looking at a preview for the film that I realized it was meant to be present-day New Jersey (perhaps the same difference).

So, why the decision on Gondry’s part to set the film squarely in the DVD era? I would have thought that part of it is the chance to underscore socioeconomic differences, but this is barely touched. I think the real reason is closer to your assessment: the DVD has enhanced viewing, but the films haven’t gotten any better. To Gondry, it’s just digital bells and whistles.

Hence the streamers instead of plasma streams for “Ghostbusters” and the jungle gym in place of a construction site for “Rush Hour 2″. It’s a back-to-basics message. All you need is VHS and some party favors and you too can enjoy making and watching movies.

I enjoyed this movie because I felt Gondry was nodding and winking at past film movements, and clearly making a commentary about our current culture, but without being a snob or too self-righteous . I even enjoyed the multiple loose ends (Why is the manager of West Coast Rentals living in the back office of his store? Did Mike and Alma really fall in love that quickly? Is there a story to that relationship that we didn’t see?) – they were the rebellious jump-cuts of this movie.

Be Kind, Rewind is one of the most bittersweet titles I have encountered: a command to do yourself a favor and rewind yourself to older, sweeter times, even though you physically are not required to rewind anything, anymore, anywhere.

But what surprised me about the film is how conventional and restrained much of it was, compared to Eternal Sunshine and Science of Sleep. For a film about the joy of film making, Gondry chooses to play it pretty straight. I found myself liking the movie the most when I got glimpses of the visual whimsy that Gondry is capable of–this man spends more time on his montages than other directors might spend on key plotpoints.

I came away wishing that the entire movie had been like his montages, or showed the quirky sense of humor of the “camouflage suits” for the power station break-in. If I ever need to, I know exactly how I’d Swede Be Kind Rewind.