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Massawyrm chimes in on Crowe's new cut on ELIZABETHTOWN!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Hola all. Massawyrm here. Cameron Crowe is one of those infinitely lauded filmmakers that you either love or get howled at by fans for not loving. And to be perfectly honest, Crowe is one of those rare cases that I actually agree with the masses on. He is the Jack Kerouac of contemporary American cinema, tempered with a healthy dose of Norman Rockwell, offering up sentimental snapshots culled from his life and the lives of those around him, treating us to raw, distilled emotion that roots itself in the universal experiences we all share. Crowe doesn’t create something new and different for us to revel in, rather, he wins us over with familiarity, with his ability to tell stories we can relate to on a very human level.
And I’ve had a very odd go of it, growing up with his films. You see, until Elizabethtown, Crowe had yet to direct a single movie that I could relate to, or even care for all that much when first I saw them – because for some odd reason, Crowe’s films were always just a few years ahead of my own life. Say Anything, a film about High School love and the journey beyond the barrier of adolescence, was released while I was finishing up Middle School. I was simply too young to get it. Similarly, Singles, a film about the 90’s post-college Grunge scene was released just as I graduated High School and had yet to be immersed in it. I saw Jerry Maguire a scant ten months into what was to become my thus far 11-year relationship with my wife, having yet to experience the romantic foibles that Jerry Maguire was entirely about. And Almost Famous, a film about a young writer for an underground magazine being taken under the wing of an opinionated critic on the fringe and being given his chance to go on a wild trip with those he’d so long admired, was released a full year and a half before I was invited to Join AICN, and two years before I myself would end up on my first such trip that actually included a young actor telling me “Dude, just make me look cool.” You see, I liked all of these movies when I first saw them, but never understood what all the fuss was about. Until I watched them again. Cameron Crowe was always just a few steps ahead of me, showing me what was to come - and I just didn’t get it. But one by one, each of his films crept back into my life.
It wasn’t until I caught Jerry Maguire on television one night, many years after release, that I finally understood his films. There I sat on the couch as the final scene unfolded, Tom Cruise on bended knee belting out his “You complete me” speech followed by the most clichéd, most laughed about and parodied line of the 1990’s “You had me at hello.” And tears were streaming down my cheeks. I was crying like a pansy assed sissy boy who just had his prized Darth Vader backpack stolen. I got it. I’d been there. I finally understood what the hell Crowe was talking about, how important it was that Jerry Maguire had just come back. And suddenly a movie that my wife (then girlfriend) and I had initially walked out shrugging from became a wonderful, beautiful film for which I found it hard to express my love of. I mean, the logical side of me argued profusely “Dude, seriously? You had me at hello? That’s fucking cheese!” But my emotional side, my very soul, wiped away the tears and said “Dude, shut the fuck up. It’s beautiful.”
And I had similar experiences with every single (true) Cameron Crowe film. Vanilla Sky doesn’t count. Crowe has this whole beauty in truth, blurring the line between his real life and his characters’ lives, Jack Kerouac thing going on and he should just stay away from Science Fiction entirely. Science Fiction was for Burroughs, not Kerouac – and it should stay that way. Vanilla Sky was an interesting experiment, not unlike a college boy saying “Hmmm, I wonder what a dude blowing me would be like” then finding out that beard stubble just plain sucks, moving him firmly back into punannyville.
What Crowe truly excels at is schmaltz – good old fashioned, corn fed, American Schmaltz. Schmaltz so sentimental, so endearing, so perfect that it actually becomes iconic. His images, his words, actually become ingrained in American culture to the point that they become cliché upon consumption, despite being wholly original. While you won’t find Say Anything on any Top 100 lists, the image of John Cusack standing with that Boom Box held high in the air is just as unforgettable, just as emotionally moving as Bogart’s Casablanca “Hill of Beans” speech to Bergman. And it’s been parodied almost as often. His films are warm, cozy, touching blankets to wrap yourself in after a bad day and remind you that there is beauty even in the most average of lives. And that’s what I love most about Cameron Crowe – his films aren’t about superheroes, nor are they about cracked families in the middle of fucked up suburbia. They’re about normal people in normal situations to which most of us can relate. Cameron Crowe isn’t about extremes. He’s about the rest of us.
Which brings us to Elizabethtown. If there’s one thing I can be thankful for in Vanilla Sky even existing, it’s that the year it took to make allowed me to catch up emotionally with the stories Crowe wants to tell. I simply loved this movie. And yet, frankly, it’s the most flawed of his semi-autobiographical works. Easily Crowe’s most self-indulgent film, Elizabethtown is a story of mixed emotions revolving around a man who’s spent so much of his life focused upon achievement that when faced with failure he discovers just how much he missed along the way. But having virtually the same plot as Zach Braff’s Garden State, Crowe proves just how great a filmmaker he is by getting everything right that Braff got wrong. Garden State spent so much time trying to be weird, trying to convey the over-medicated Los Angeles feeling of numbness, and trying to look as cool as it could muster at every possible moment, that Braff completely ignored the humanity of issues at hand. Cameron Crowe does not.
Elizabethtown is a simple story, one driven by Crowe’s usual sense of humor and style. As with each of his previous works it both proves to be a satire of modern society and a loving portrayal of it at the same time. In a year when we seem inundated with films that wish to ceaselessly mock small town southern life (like the recent efforts Junebug and Daltry Calhoun), Elizabethtown manages to make several of the same jokes while simultaneously celebrating the sense of community and love that permeates small town southern culture. And it works. The film is sweetly hilarious.
But as I said, the film is flawed. The story isn’t anything we haven’t seen before and neither are the characters. And if Cameron Crowe’s name weren’t on this film, whoever’s name was on it would be accused of blatantly ripping him off. You can smell Cameron Crowe on every frame of this film from twenty paces outside the theatre. There’s no mistaking it. This is the most readily identifiable of his films. And those who are not enamored of his style or tricks are simply going to be driven batshit crazy by it, particularly the ending.
You see, Cameron Crowe’s most distinctive quality as a filmmaker is one he shares with Quentin Tarantino. His films are intrinsically tied to the music of his life, the music of the era he’s set the film in; and the music he chooses forever becomes tied to whatever he does with it. Whether you like it or not. That music, much like his memorable images, immediately conjures up the moments of the film in which he uses them. For some of us, that is the masterstroke of a Cameron Crowe film. For others, those for whom the emotional nature of the films just doesn’t seem to connect, it feels more like he’s just sifting through his record collection. And in the last fifteen or so minutes of this film Crowe just goes nuts. It seems as if he simply plugged his iPod into his Avid and hit shuffle.
Now for me, I loved that touch. But of course if I were ever offered a chance to spend two hours with Cameron Crowe I’d simply throw out my arms and say “Dude, break out the vinyl and tell me a story”, because that’s what Cameron Crowe films are all about. That’s the Cameron Crowe experience. But not everyone wants that, not everyone can relate to the stories he tells. And that’s the biggest problem with Cameron Crowe’s films, especially Elizabethtown. You cannot simply love his films for the way he tells his stories. You cannot love them for any sort of unique visual style, for any sort of subtlety. The heart and soul of Crowe’s work relies entirely on being able to relate to the story he’s telling. It relies entirely upon being able to say “Man, I know exactly what you’re saying. I’ve totally been there.” And if you can’t relate, if you haven’t been there, well, it’s just another story that’s occasionally funny, somewhat hokey and chock full of music you may or may not like. For those that can’t relate I imagine it’s something akin to hanging out at your buddies house while he plays 30 seconds of each of his favorite songs while telling you what each song means to him. And anyone that hasn’t been into any of Crowe’s films before certainly isn’t going to change their opinion of him with Elizabethtown. Self-indulgent is a phrase you’re going to hear a lot as you read more and more reviews of it, because that’s what it is.
And yet, that’s exactly why I love it. Cameron Crowe makes films that seem as if he is borrowing from my life, not his. He seems to be reaching in and plucking out the most visceral, heart wrenching moments I’ve lived through and translating them to the screen for all to see. Elizabethtown took me back to just a year ago when I visited my own extended family in small town upstate New York, a family I barely know and seems to love me for my direct relation and striking resemblance to my father – and it took me back to the two hour car ride to the airport with my dad where for the first time in our lives we were absolutely real with one another. And we got to know one another after almost thirty years of simply thinking we knew one another. But that’s the beauty of the shared human experience. That’s the beauty of Cameron Crowe’s films. While these experiences aren’t unique, they are special, and Crowe’s films remind us of that.
The last fifteen minutes of this film are the most important – they’re the real journey of Orlando Bloom’s Drew Baylor. It’s all about the reconnection to humanity, the reconnection to his father. It’s about crossing that barrier of understanding that your loved one is truly gone and never coming back. It’s about letting yourself cry and moving on. It’s about celebrating life. And it’s told in the way Cameron Crowe always tells it – through the music that is so very much important to him. And it’s this fifteen minutes that will cause the most debate after the film.
You see, Elizabethtown has two endings. The first is the ending that those who don’t grok Crowe will see - which doesn’t actually resolve anything at all but rather proves to be the catalyst for the final segment of the film – and the second is that emotional journey itself. This is why I’ve spent so much time talking about the ending and not everything leading up to it. The ending is the soul of the film, the crux of whether you love it or not, and it’s the part that most reminded me that you’ve either been there or you haven’t. And I can’t fault anyone with not digging it. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of films that I will argue until I’m blue in the face about. This isn’t one of them. It’s not a matter of whether you “get” the film – after all, it’s fairly transparent. It’s a matter of whether you’ve “felt” the film. We all share the same experiences, but they come to us in different forms at different times, and if you can’t relate well then it’s just the way the chips have fallen. Maybe somewhere down the road it’ll hit you, like Jerry Maguire hit me. Like Say Anything hit me. Like Almost Famous hit me.
While the performances, the direction and the pacing of Elizabethtown are all solid, there’s nothing truly stand out about them. Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst and Susan Sarandon are all very good, but none deliver career highs. The weight of this film rests entirely on what you bring in with you, not what Crowe gives you to take away.
When Jack Kerouac sat down to put to paper his rules for writing, to explain his method to his closest friends, he explained that all writing should be a free form expression like a jazz musician fluidly blowing out notes. He wrote about “Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog” and that “Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form.” Most importantly, he wrote “Be in love with yr(sic) life.” No one, and I mean no one, in American cinema exemplifies this philosophy like Cameron Crowe. And like Kerouac, some will call him genius for this work while others will simply accuse him of pretentiously jerking off with his record collection. Me, I love Crowe’s work. It speaks to me. Elizabethtown reminded me how special my time with my father really was, and remdined me even moreso to appreciate the time we have left. It made me want to call him immediately after watching it and get to know him even better. If you can relate to that you’ll no doubt find Elizabethtown a magnificent film – if not, well, then perhaps someday you will, and you and I can exchange knowing looks letting each other know that I get you, you get me and Cameron Crowe, well, he gets us both. Until then, we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Until next time, friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. I know I will.
Massawyrm
If you're the man to complete me, you'll have me at 'hello'!
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right time? PZ
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Whether you like, or indeed feel his movies, has a lot ot do with Crowe himself too. Knowing his story, hearing him talk about his life,talk about movies, about music, hell even about his own movies, it's gonna take a deeply cynical human being to hate him, or what he's trying to achieve with his work. He's trying to make a genuine sincere connection between the film and the individual. I think that's an uncommon thing in the movie business, and that it shows in his films.
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That is all.
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And it seems to me like it was an experiement, and it also felt to me like the most LEAST personal of Cameron Crowe's films, with Almost Famous his MOST personal. Still looking forward to ElizabethTown though.
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...it's ok to have a feminine side burl, you don't have to be the big studly, macho guy the whole time you know...
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Sorry, I feel asleep about 1/3 into that one. Just give the fucking review and forget about your life story leading up to it.
Jesus. -
It's one thing to cry at a movie. But crying during Jerry Maguire? That's just wrong.
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...for people with lisps, trying to pronounce anyones names from this film made them cry... Renee Zellweger?? Tom Cruise?! Jonathan Lipnicki?!?!?! Making sympathy dribble just thinking about it.
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This is how a good review goes. I don't need the when/where/I bought goobers and snowcaps and a large Mr. Pibb of a lot of reviews on this site, but an emotional and film historic background is what makes me know if I'm going to dig something or not. I know by now that Moriarty and I have similar tastes. Most everything he prefaces a review with, I agree with, and thus, usually share similar thoughts on said film. This is another case that goes the extra mile to explain the "why" of an opinion on the film. While I am only 26, and thus, I guess only emotionally prepared for SINGLES, I love all of Crowe's flicks (Sans Vanilla Sky...does ANYONE like that movie???). I think sometimes his movies can be so good, and he can be so passionate about what he's saying, that at least for me, I recognized that I was going to feel, or had already felt, many of those emotions. Great review, and I look forward to seeing how I will take this film.
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..you mean Massawyrm, :( been there pal don't sweat it...
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pretty much love all Crowes films
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Wah!
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I didn't care for this film. I saw it the other night in Boston and despite having a lot of good qualities about it, it was a pretty shapeless mess. It was as if Cameron Crowe had come up with tons of ideas that he loved and didn't want to part with any of them. In doing so, he has so many little things going on that nothing is really developed fully enough to make us care. Not a horrible film, but one that is very, very disappointing. Oh well, he can't hit them out of the park every time I guess.
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I did....
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..."which brings us to Elizabethtown," and probably would have if that line had come ANYWHERE NEAR the beginning of this "review." As it stands, by the time I found the word Elizabethtown (after nodding off during the first third of the piece I started scroll-scanning), I no longer cared what you thought of the movie because it was already apparent to me that you are unable to appreciate any film that doesn't show you something you've already experienced (otherwise you would have recognized the genius in Crowe's earlier works without having to have lived approximations of the characters' conflicts and triumphs). Believe it or not, in ancient Greece scholars, politicians and craftsmen were able to experience catharsis with actors portraying heroes and gods on the stage. Many of them hadn't even fought a war, much less weilded lightning. Grow an imagination and hire an editor.
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Well I said 'Stop talking shit and get on with it' at the review 2 paragraphs in, and stopped reading it. This film is supposed to be shit anyway. Most of the reviews liking it will be found here too, so don't be too taken in by them here.
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Holy crap was that long.. I agree with the two talkbackers above me.. Masswawrym dude, you COULD give us a 1-3 paragraph review AND THEN go do like an ALERT saying NOW THE TALK ABOUT HOW I LOVE MY WIFE AND DATED HER AND HAD MUSTARD WITH HER WHEN WE FIRST WENT OUT ... holy crap..
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"...to agree to disagree."
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That way when I click to read a review I don't waste ten minutes sifting through someone's entire life story just to find out if they liked a damn movie.
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Oct 06, 2005 10:32:51 AM CDT
As long as we're going with the "you had me at..." lines, Ma
by lance rock
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If it's still as syrupy sweet as the version that played at the Toronto Film Festival, it should come with a warning from the American Medical Association.
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Oct 06, 2005 10:42:51 AM CDT
Like I was saying...if the review is too long for you moron'
by phishin49
...then don't read it. All you fucks do is complain blah blah blah. ( I guess I am a hypocrite for complaining about people complaining) If your 2nd grade minds can't get through a well written, well thought out, personal review then don't fuckin read it. Damn this sight annoys me every now and again.
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How are Crowe's films normal?? They're uber-schmaltzy and hyper-real if anything. Exactly when have any of his situations worked for us in the wind and grind?? Isn't that the whole point of the 'you had me at hello'? Any normal bloke would have grimaced and walked out the door...
I really like Almost Famous because it puts a big grin on my face. Not because of how I relate to it because I don't, but how I appreciate the escapism. And isn't that the point of film; to escape the humdrum and revel in the wild? -
That's what it's come down to. Have REAL reviews separate from these "bloggish" reviews.
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The thing that I found brilliant about it is that you didn't know it was sci fi until the end. I hope they have a Lucid Dream place when I die, shit. Oh yeah one more thing, this reviewer is a total Plant.
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Talk about a cop-out. "All of Cameron Crowe's movies kick ass because I just don't include the ones I didn't like."
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....a little on the long side...and the whole "blow job from a guy in college" analogy had me in fear of continuing...but well done. STILL don't know what to think about Crowe's latest though...
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Perhaps the most subversive Hollywood film since vertigo. Why don't any of you actually look at? And it seemed pretty damn personal to me.
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With a couple of pieces of interesting info contained therein. You're still glib as hell though, Massawyrm - hahahahahaha!
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... is a word used by those who have no real way to justify why they either like or dislike a manipulative, phony piece of shit like Elizabethtown. Ditto "cheesy" or "corny"... There's a reason you find so many people tying themselves into knots trying to come up with words to appreciate Crowe's films... the English language has yet to stoop to his level.
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Jack Kerouac never had to leaden lame scenes by plonking shit songs like "Tiny Dancer" as a substitute for emotion. Pathetic comparison.
Vanilla Sky was a remake of a Spanish film and Crowe's attempt is an abortion as attempted by a apprentice butcher.
And if the trailer of this new film with Orlando "the girl's in" Bloom is any indication, Elizabethtownm looks like an utter piece of shit. -
Jesus! Did you go to the AICN school of movie reviewing or what?! Why do all of you guys have to tell us your f-ing life story before getting to the damn review?! Are you all so full of yourselves that you think we care? I don't care about your personal connection to every movie you see - that doesn't help me decide whether or not I want to see it. Try to be objective next time, if that's allowed on AICN.
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He might give some personal background, but at least it's relevant personal background. And he lays his biases out up front so we know what we're dealing with. And it's well written (better than many newspaper reviews). I think maybe the Kerouac/Crowe thing is Crowe being inspired by Kerouac's method, not that Crowe or his work is any way comparable to Jack. I love Almost Famous, not because I've ever been a teen reporter touring with a band, but because I've been in a band, and most bands have conflicts, and often they get resolved through the music - so the Tiny Dancer scene on the bus hit home, not least because the bassist for the movie's band, the guy who starts the singalong, is Mark Kozelek from Red House Painters, one of my favorite bands from the mid-90s. And Vanilla Sky fits into Crowe's work quite well - it's just that different fantasy you have in your head while listening to Radiohead on your headphones. I didn't want to like Jerry Maguire, but I did in spite of myself. My wife, who was a single mother, apparently used to use the movie to test guys she was dating. I'm not sure what that means, but I guess I passed. Sorry, that's my ramble for the day.
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I haven't seen Elizabethtown yet but I will soon (it shows during the Filmfestival in Ghent, Belgium). I'm not a Cameron Crowe aficionado and I don't particularly care for his work even though I'm curious about Elizabethtown. So why am I writing this, you ask?! Because I'm getting fed up with Talkbackers that's why. Sure, I do understand the irony of me being a Talkbacker myself but why is it that below every - and yes; that's "every" - article nobody seems to care anymore. Everybody just seems to bitch and moan about movies and everything else. I don't know why you people come to this site if you hate reading reviews that - ah sweet jeebus - are a bit long (ever read a book?). Talkbackers seem to despise everything these days. It's not funny anymore. This place should be reserved for people who want to have a solid discussion about movies. A place where everybody respects anyone else's opinion. Sure, no Talkback would be complete without a juveline pun or insult throw Harry's way but it has reached the point of being not just irriating but fucking annoying as hell. You won't listen to me, I know that... just so you know: try going out in the real world sometimes instead of bitchin' and moaning behind your computer, hidden in a porninfested dungeon.
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At least 12893 other people agreed with me. And I don't need to see Orlando Bloom or Kirsten Dunst in it to make me like it better.
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...then you might want to see an optometrist. As for our criticizing this critique, most of the complaints seem to be more about how unbearably long our "reviewer" takes to get to the damned point than the overall length of the piece. Plus, much of the information he reveals during that painfully long lead-in really undermines his credibility as a critic. We wouldn't know that if we hadn't read it, so how could we pre-form an opinion about whether it would be worth reading or not based solely on its length? On the other hand, since reading other people's criticisms of the critic apparently chaps your rims, it would be easy enough for you to simply skip the posts with obviously bitchy lead-ins. Something tells me you won't, though. Masochist.
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...I mean... see, you people make me fuck up my spelling!
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Immature manboy (or just boy) hooks up with wise-beyond-her-years kooky free-spirited woman, finds salvation. Rinse. Repeat.
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Oct 06, 2005 1:36:43 PM CDT
Jack Kerouac just executed a grave-bound triple lindie.
by inspectordoppler
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I sent Quint my review two days ago, and since he apparently isn't running it for whatever reason, I figured I'd just post it here for a somewhat alternative take on the whole thing. Sorry for the length and the lack of paragraphs (you know how archaic these talk backs are). ____________________
First of all, let me say this... People are idiots. Waiting in line for this screening on the Paramount lot this morning, I wanted to turn around and strangle the various "target demographic groups" standing directly behind me. From the three college morons who wouldn't stop talking about getting tan (?) and making really annoying sound effects (??), to the group of zit-faced, hipster high school kids who kept mocking any hard-working Paramount employee who happened to walk or ride by on a bicycle, I began to seriously doubt the future of the human race [even more]. Did I sound that stupid just a year ago in college? And why the hell aren't these kids in school on a Tuesday morning? After a deep sigh, the woman in front of me looked at me and confided that they were about to have a mutiny on their hands if we weren't let into the theater soon and away from these retards. This was just before she held up her mandatory wristband and said, "I hope these are for the free alcohol." I needed to get inside. I needed Cameron Crowe to save me. ____________________ I needed the feel-good ending of a "Jerry MaGuire." I needed the familiar Nancy Wilson guitar strums of an "Almost Famous." I needed Lloyd Dobler to greet me at the theater door with a boom-box above his head. In the most heterosexual way possible. I am a Cameron Crowe fan through and through. And I'm probably one of the only people I know who can claim "Vanilla Sky" as one of their favorite movies, which is why I may lose any credibility I had going into this review. But it's also why this review is going to be so hard to write. ____________________ I was able to get my hands on a copy of the Elizabethtown script a couple years ago and I've read it at least three times since then. There's just something about Crowe's writing that you can't help but admire and want to return to as often as you can. That being said, I knew this story inside and out and it's been at the top of my must see list since that very first read. So I won't bother going over the details of the story, since pretty much everyone knows at least the basic set-up by now. ____________________ The cut that was screened came in at just under 2 hours and 10 minutes and felt like a far cry from the "too long" extended festival cut everyone's been referring to that screened a few weeks ago in Toronto and various other places (which is the same cut I believe Harry saw). As far as I could tell, this was the "final" theatrical cut and the first time this version had been shown to the public. It also seemed to be the press screening referred to in the great CHUD interview with Crowe that ran yesterday (http://www2.chud.com/index.php?type=interviews&id=4585). I say "seemed to be" because there were four whole rows taped off for press, but only five or so press members actually showed up, leaving the area kind of barren. It was a little disheartening, actually. The rest of the theater was pretty packed, however. ____________________ Like I said before, I knew this story inside and out before ever setting foot into the theater. The thrill for me was to see how it all translated to screen and to hopefully discover and absorb some new Cameron Crowe signature soundtrack moments. And let me say, the first hour accomplished both aspects brilliantly. The audience was loving it. They were eating up everything Crowe fed them, laughing at all the right moments, and there were a lot of those right moments. At this point, I was sitting there thinking of who all I was going to call the second this was over to tell them how freakin' great Elizabethtown was. The charm, the comedy, the little signature soundtrack moments - it was vintage Crowe and it was all there. For the first time in a long time, I actually couldn't stop smiling while watching a movie. ____________________ It was around this one-hour mark, however, where things kind of started to unravel. Not really in a big way, per se. There's no "when-we-meet-Tim-Robbins'-character-in-the-basement" type scene that brings it all to a halt. And it never really truly "unravels" to the point of being bad. Not even remotely close. It's just hard to put your finger on what becomes different about it. It just loses a little bit of its focus and parts of it start coming off as kind of awkward. You gradually start realizing the audience isn't laughing as much as they were and that we're kind of meandering back and forth and back again through the redundant settings and situations - much like Drew and Claire's (Bloom and Dunst, respectively) relationship around this point, of which there really isn't one. ____________________ But this isn't necessarily the fault of the story itself. It's more the fault of this stream-lined cut. I know what was written, I know what was filmed, and from having talked to people who saw the festival cut, I know what was in that cut that this one didn't have. In this case, removing the fat didn't give it a sharper focus, it only made for references that weren't there and for themes left not as fleshed out as they could have been. I know the scenes exist that help certain references make sense. I know the bits of dialogue that were left out that help embrace and explain the major themes to their full potential. And I understand why some of them were taken out (other than "needing" a shorter cut). But it's not a case of just removing the obvious, yet still getting the general idea. It's that the general idea and heart of the story is lost without those bits of scenes and dialogue. ____________________ As a few examples, AND THIS IS A SLIGHT SPOILER PARAGRAPH, I'll mention a couple specifics, though nothing major. First of all, the whole "Ben" as Claire's never-present boyfriend thing. Without the proper tidying up of this plot point, which is made clear in the script, in the film it's left pretty much unresolved, unless you count an assumption Drew makes toward the end about the character to Claire. Without fully explaining the Ben thing, as it does in the script - WHY Claire makes him up, and WHO he really is - it makes every time she referrers to him seem completely unnecessary and only serves as a plot point to cause conflict instead of a genuine defense mechanism/security blanket thing that's true to her character. But what got to me most was a line spoken by Susan Sarandon's character (Drew -
It's funny how negative everyone has gotten, I see the same people tearing apart everything. Mass your reveiw hit the nail on the head. I went to a crew screaning last Saturday. Sure there could be things done to make it better, but this film is about moments, there are truly great moments in this film that only Cameron can pull off. Why dont you all stop judging shit you havent seen. Your comments hold no ground on films you havent seen. Unless it's a Uwe Boll film, then we know it will suck right off the the bat. Cameron I love you. I got my top five pics for that weekend.
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Oct 06, 2005 2:21:33 PM CDT
I like some of Crowe's past stuff (Fast Times script, Say An
by orbots commander
Why? Because it looks like a made-for-Lifetime-movie of the week. I can almost feel a pair of breasts growing on my chest everytime that trailer is shown.
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Oct 06, 2005 2:27:13 PM CDT
As a follow up to my review, what was missing from this cut...
by darth yddet
OK, this is just off the top of my head, but here's what was missing... ____________________ ***MAJOR SPOILERS*** ____________________ - After getting fired, Drew's whole inappropriate break-down thing infornt of Ellen. It never even shows him getting thrown out by the security guards. It just cuts from Drew walking down the hall, seeing Ellen talking to a new male employee, to Drew outside the Mercury headquarters, walking away from the building. This wouldn't have bothered me so much had Crowe not left in the part of the "phone scene" where Drew tells Ellen, "Sorry about that silly goodbye." As is, all it does is make for a reference that isn't even there. ____________________ - I actually don't know if this was even filmed, but the whole counterpart / David Tan thing. There's absolutely no reference or hint of this character. Again, this is something that wouldn't have really mattered had it not resulted in the wholly left out re-imergence of the Spasmotica "revolution" in the end. I guess I can understand why this was cut, because it kind of takes away from the message and impact of the "fiasco," but still. I absolutely loved this aspect of the story, where he realizes Sampson is weraing Spasmoticas and then more and more people are doing the same throughout his road trip. There's a shot of Sampson and Jesse walking away from Drew as he waves goodbye from the car, and Sampson MAY have been wearing Spasmoticas, but it was hard to tell. If he was, there was no emphasis on it whatsoever. ____________________ - Hollie and Heather arriving at the airport for Mitch's memorial. It's like the entire film Hollie and Heather talk as if they're not going to the memorial. Then, BAM, they're all the sudden peaking out from behind the curtain at the memorial. I guess it's assumed the whole time that they are coming, but without them arriving at the airport it just feels like, "where the heck did they come from?" ____________________ - As for the end, it simply ends with Drew and Claire embracing and kissing in slow-motion. We never go back to Drew's apartment to find that this whole thing has been a story that Drew's telling to Ben, Claire's BROTHER (which I assumed is mostly why we even had the Drew voice-overs in the first place, which are still in this cut). There's no giving-away of the bike, nothing. This is probably my main complaint of the whole thing. It cheapens the entire Ben thing that's HEAVILY prevelant throughout the entire story. This ending absolutely HAS to be put back in for the director's cut. ____________________ ***END SPOILERS*** ____________________ I can't think of any other "major" missing aspects right now. If I do, I'll post them here. But if anyone has any other questions or refenrences, it may jog my memory.
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I thought Garden State was great, and it wasn't just trying to be weird, as this reviewer put it. It just wasn't a sugary handjob from Cameron Crowe. And yes, I liked most of his movies up to this point.And again, many props to him for his Billy Wilder book (coincidence that he made Almost Famous right after? Complete with Penny Lane/Mrs. Kubelick overdose scene?) Also, DREXL: is it true that in certain countries, saying "Your mother is Belgian" is an insult? I had a Brit tell me that once. Just wondering.
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Oct 06, 2005 3:15:31 PM CDT
"Crow gets everything right that Baff got wrong in Garden State"
by shadowsorkin07
Bullshit. I call bullshit. It was a very human movie, and while it does spend some time on the weird, it doesn't spend to much time on it. I love most of crows stuff, but I think he overdoes the emotional stuff too much sometimes. Hammers in the point to far. Garden State did it perfectly, not to much, not to little. Now, if you want to argue that GS had a weak ending, I disagree but I think it's debatable. Arguing that it has a weak emotional connection though, is crap. As for the movie, I'm looking forward to E town, and will see it opening weekend with a date or friends, but I won't be comparing it to garden state, because I'm not childish and so insecure about my reviewing abilities that I have to rag on a good movie.
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it looks like complete shit. i'm sorry. it looks like a big pile of steaming hot S-H-I-T. the books are masterpieces and the man with the yellow hat has been sodomized by bad animation, terrible motivation and.. will ferrell's voice isn't really the problem, i just wish he would do something else.
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I know that shouldn't effect my opinion on his films...but it does. Even if I try to forget, Kelly Preston is there to remind me.
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Join us...Join us! Oh, I didn't notice the Prior at the beginning of your name, sorry. Keep on doing whatever you were doing before this rude interruption. Sorry to disturb you, sir.
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I hate jackasses who think they're really interesting, but really they're just pompous and boring. Reading that shit was like torture and I still don't know if he liked that damn film or not. Fuck You!
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Oct 06, 2005 4:33:08 PM CDT
Just letting Harry know that that review didn't have any spo
by freakemovie
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...sorry.... just had to.
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Cutesy-poo dialogue. His best, least contrived movie is still Say Anything.
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Frankly, this guy lost me half way through. Not that I couldn't understand what he was saying, I just got bored. I love some Cameron Crowe movies, as I was exactly in time with his main characters. That's all great, but he's wrong in his comment on Junebug: that movie does not mock rural North Carolina life AT ALL. I lived in Greensboro for 7 years, and have many inlaws who live outside Charlotte. And that movie is exactly right in it's depiction. Letter perfect. I'm sorry it's not all Steel Magnolias and sun shiny happy southern charm, and golly-gee-these-southern-folk-are-charming-and-clever and all that shit, but it is truthfull. And, on a more embarrassing note: I, like the brother's work friend, have watched the DVD of the Panthers-Patriots superbowl a number of times, each time wishing, hoping, and praying for a different outcome. "Junebug" is a great fucking movie.
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Face it, Fast Times at Ridgemont High shaped the high school screwball and stoner comedy forever. Say Anything, cheesy 80's shmaltz. We owe the existance of shows like Friends to Singles. "Show Me The Money" just bitch slapped whatever douchebag said "I Think, Therefore I Am" as the defining statement of humanity, thanks to Jerry McGuire. So you can't say that Cameron Crowe hasn't been influential...nay, the one true voice of all sentient lifeforms in the universe. And I have nodoubt that this film with Legolas and Mary Jane will once again shape and redefine the very paradigm in which we live. But if it's all the same to you, I'm going to stay home and jack off to the Gimore Girls.
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Why does nobody mention Vanilla Sky? And don't go into that huge debate about how it's nothing compared to the original, it's a fantastic movie that probably has the best use of "Good Vibrations" anywhere.
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Garden State was great. Not the best but great...especially as a first time venture. No need to compare it to Elizabethtowm. Unless Crowes movie is a carbon copy. This review makes me want to see this film less...and I like Cameron Crowe movies very much.
Massawyrm's little...wait...really long love letter to Crowe, has led me to believe that he is in need of an editor or maybe his wife could just tell him to get to the point. Jeez.
For a guy with a Jesus cartoon hopping on an upside down cross, that review was really shmaltzy. -
That's one of the things I love about Crowe. You might begin to be persuaded by the naysayers that he uses music as a way of cheating emotion, and then he comes up with the genius of inserting the perfect songs in the right places, songs that nobody would even think of. The guy's a subversive genius.
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Oct 06, 2005 10:03:28 PM CDT
i for one thought it was a great review, probably my favorite of
by holodigm
and i also liked vanilla sky. you say Good Vibrations, i say Can We Still Be Friends. for three years i thought that song couldn't be used in a more disturbing manner. then i watched season 2 of nip/tuck. or maybe that song just disturbs me in general.
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Oct 06, 2005 11:09:02 PM CDT
You say Good Vibrations and Can We Still Ben Friends. I say Radi
by moviemaniac-7
Everything in its right place... Brilliant opening song.
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"Another vote FOR"...While I like many of Crowe's films, VS remains the one I can watch repeatedly, and still be moved by every time. Perhaps it's a cheat to call it that way, as it's in many ways a carbon copy of "Open Your Eyes", only I get bored with OYE...but I adore VS. It rocketh mightily. As I type, it was Cruise's last great moment.
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Oct 07, 2005 7:31:18 AM CDT
We can blah, blah, blah all we want about the movie but the fact
by mjayace
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Oct 07, 2005 9:32:56 AM CDT
"I stopped when he started trashing Zach Braff." Amen to that.
by minderbinder
I was on the fence about seeing this one. But if it's supposed to be a Crowe remake of Garden State? Based on some of the other cheesy shit Crowe has made (I'm looking at you, Jerry Maguire), count me out.
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That's either a load of utter bullshite or the worst back-handed compliment I ever heard. Vanilla Sky was kak. If I want to hear re-fried classic rock music, I can tune a radio station fore free, I needn't pay $15 to listen to it at a movie. O-kay, we get it, Crowe really, really likes his iPod. Butr for the love of god, does he have to substitute this crap for film. He's very, very lazy and mediocre writer and director. (Having said that, the script for Fast Times is boss. But seriously, he's now just a bloated waste of time.)
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The two weakest and laziest conventions in contemporary cinema are 1) when a director is desperate to evoke a mood and finds the solution by throwing down cheap songs everyone's heard before (hey, scores big with the morons who religiously watch American Idol, but face it kids, it's shit); and 2) when a director has to develop character and plot by having two actors give long expository conversations into telephones. And Crowe's new movie has lots of both!! Believe the critics boys and girls, saw this one in Toronto for free, and it is El-Sucko, you'd be a moron to pay money for this. Wait for the dvd rental and then wipe your arse with it. Peace, love & eternal grooviness, out.
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If you are born before 1979 and are/were a geek, you get C.C. If you were born after 1979 and are not a serious geek, it's harder to connect with a Cameron Crowe film. That was M.'s point. As for best use of music, I give you The Beach Boys' "Free Flow" as end credit song in "Almost Famous", and from Vanilla Sky, Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye" for when Cruise leave the apt. after the first night alone with Penelope. Good review Massawrym. I'll being seeing this in the theatre.------later-----m
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I'm a Kennedy baby, I am a geek, and Cameron Crowe is probably the most over-hyped director of the past decade. It's got nothing to do with it being a generational thing and everything to do with shitty filmmaking. Crowe substitues music for emotion. Some of you dunces reckon that's genius, but it's no different than what Madison Ave. does throwing a classic Motown or Zeppelin tune overtop of commercials to sell you Cadillacs and french fries -- manipulate you by playing upon your nostalgiac sentimentality. It's like a big red flag that tells you, o-kay kids, time to stop thinking for yourself, let's trip down memory-lane with a song you've skipped to a thousand times, here, we'll turn it up a bit louder so you can eat more popcorn. A good director will employ a good composer and they will come up with something original, not Casey Kasem retreads.
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i liked vanilla sky the first time i saw it, thought less of it with subsequent viewings... i also liked but didn't love almost famous. there was something about the characters in that film that i just found very alienating. say anything is probably my favorite thing that he's done, that i've seen, and even there i really hate the whole subplot with john mahoney. so, i dunno... crowe's kind of hit and miss, as far as i'm concerned. i do REALLY like the trailers for elizabethtown, so i'll probably give it a try...
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it seems to me that the reviews on this site are becoming more and more like harry's. a note to future reviewers: we don't need to know every thought, every detail, how many dumps you took the day you saw the movie. just go straight to the review, please, for the love of god, and if you must, save the additional b.s. for later.
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Oct 08, 2005 2:12:14 AM CDT
The gayest would-be catchy phrase in the history of modern cinem
by heywood jablomie
.....is, in ALMOST FAMOUS:
"It's all happening!"
Kind of like if it were "Show me the remuneration!" or "You had me at the moment we first said hi to each other." -
You do know bad mouthing people who have some juice in Hollywood is no way to get gigs.
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that post was golden, an instant classic.
Now to business....I rarely rip reviewers on this site but there is such a thing as a self edit. The internet is a wonderful creation because it provides a medium in which people are able to instantly self-publish. The downfall, of course, is hacks like this without any editorial oversight who go on and on.
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