KIM'S VIDEO (B) - It was with trepidation that we went into
this adventurous documentary, which chronicles a New York video store
and follows its inventory on a random odyssey to a small Sicilian
village. It is often annoying but in the end wins you over with its
sheer determination.
David Redmon co-directs (with Ashley Sabin) and narrates this ostensible detective story about the ultimate fate of the tens of thousands of movie titles -- many of them bootleg, obscure and cherished -- and their improbable transfer from the mysterious video-store owner, Mr. Kim, to the random village of Salemi in western Sicily. The narrative takes several odd twists and turns (some caused by the narrator himself), and you get the feeling that Redmon isn't telling you the whole story; but it's his movie, and he and Sabin can tell their own version of the truth.
The first half is dragged down by childish animated re-creations; Redmon's hushed, faux-reverent narration (he sounds like an obscene caller); and his constant strained references to movies -- both rare and popular ones -- that just make him seem like an insufferable hipster braggart who used to work in a video store. The overall style is off-putting, and Redmon -- who apparently had money to burn, traveling all over the world and running up production costs -- comes off like an entitled brat who has nothing else to do for years but make his precious little documentary.
But the second half hooks you with an old one-two and a splash of water in the face as the tale gets knottier and the impending resolution more intriguing. Redmon and Sabin develop the colorful characters from Salemi and unspool an underworld tale in tribute to Jules Dassin and the noir antecedents. They nest a few clever callbacks into the climax and wrap it up with a satisfying ending.
No comments:
Post a Comment