Cameron Crowe is gross

is that the paradise we would choose?

(I dont think you're bitchy. i thnk its almost a complete failure)

Also, Penelope Cruz was close to unbearable.

(Well, sort of)

I really like Almost Famous though.

I have a weird thing for Jerry McGuire too.

There are elements of SMARM to all his films though. A kind of creepy Seattle liberal self satisfaction vibe that just makes me wanna hurl -- everything between Cruise and Cruz in Vanilla. SINGLES in it's entirety.

Second worst CC moment: The scene in Singles where Campbell Scott tells Bridget Fonda, "If we were in parallel universe, I bet we'd be a scorching couple." Arggh.

and Jerry Maguire ROOLZ, fuk all u hataz. VS though - wow was it awful.

Most directors / actors have trouble carrying a commentary track for more than 10 minutes period.

(also he's always implicitly presenting himself as Wilder's heir, which bugs the shit outta me)

'almost famous' was unbelieveably bad. nothing worked in that one. (except for 'feel flows'..."uhhhh, thank god this shitty movie is finally over & hey, what's going on, oh yes! that genius beach boys song!"... and putting mark kozelek onscreen). i haven't seen 'singles' since it came out, so i don't know if it's worse than 'almost famous'.
probably so.

the bad reviews of 'vanilla sky' scared me off. everyone saying 'show me the money' ad nauseam scared me away from 'jerry mcguire'.

except that anyone who casts TC surely understands what it is they're casting (and this applied well before jm). if his character comes across as enormously likeable you have to wonder why, since almost everything he says or does for the first 3/4 of the film is reprehensible.

(i believe what slutsky is trying to say = jm r0oLz)

(nb. i don't remember a single plot-point from vanilla sky)

it just occured to me how much of what i like about JM and AF depends on my taking crowe's cues the wrong way - it's like the dictionary def'n of "ironic appreciation" except i really do LIKE those pictures

I didn't find the Cruise character in JM likeable myself, but there were so. many. reaction shots, catching him at little fleeting confused or vulnerable moments, that seemed to cry, "Like me!" Fuck Tom Cruise. No matter what directors wish to do "intelligently" with his persona, he turns his movies to slime. Toss him in a pit with Gregory Peck.

yeah I was gonna say! I really really liked Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut, and I can't imagine a better person for the role. Not sure if it is the same playing "against" that amateurist speaks of, but it worked for me.

Like a fair number of people who have Jules et Jim posters up in their posh apts., I'd wager.

Rented and watched last night apropos of this thread and you haytaz are partly right, it's a movie with ALL of Crowe's excesses in it: largely shitty dialoague, telegraphed punches, the overexplanation at the end. I still thought it was worth watching, though; the pacing was, for Crowe, typically engrossing right up 'til the last fifteen minutes or so, and the opening 25 minutes were so disorientingly plotless that it was kind of refreshing. I think there was an icky misogynistic quality to the way the Cameron Diaz character was written, but (this will get me killed on this thread I fear, but whatever) I thought the whole mask/broken face deal was really good, classic easy-to-read mainstream Hollywood movie "depth," which is a thing I support: I like Wilder, Capra, Ford etc.

So do I, but aside from Say Anything Crowe doesn't come anywhere close to that kind of liveliness and spirit in his films. I'm not in total agreement with the haters on this thread though -- most of his movies are more meh than truly hateable.

(and i'm serious about the velvet goldmine thing too: the parallels between how sexuality is dealt with in AF/VelvetGoldmine and 70's-duderock/glam - closeted and blinkered on the one hand, overt and curious on the other - are pretty interesting. i'm not about to start digging for homo subtexts all over the movie or anything, but i do think it's worth considering why the lame 'i'm gay' planecrash gag jarred as badly as it did, personally - it's as freaked-out-of-itself as the picture gets)

(also he really held onto that grudge against the Rolling Stone fact-checker a long time, didn't he?)

I just can't believe how anyone can dislike that film. It's near perfection. You would have to be EVIL to dislike it.

-- horseshoe (rosalind51...), November 14th, 2006.

but..you...complete me (otfm)

Do we really not have an Elizabethtown thread? I just saw it, and as a Crowe fan in general I have to say it and Vanilla Sky make me hate hate hate him. I don't even know where to start.

Actually, I do: On his cross-country road trip, he spreads part of his father's ashes at the Lorraine Motel?

Where, of course, the soundtrack briefly lapses into "Pride (In the Name of Love."

Also, dude: Girls who make mix CDs for guys don't put "(single version)" after appropriate song titles.

Great cast, but Jesus.

Taking this to ILE.

What I mean is: give Cameron Crowe fifty years or so: "Jerry McGuire" or howevah you spell it is going to look like a stone classic.
-- J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Saturday, May 3, 2003 11:50 AM (4 years ago)

For what it's worth, I've added Elizabethtown to the (bottom of) queue. I've avoided it thus far because, well, it is what is--a nuevo Crowe romcom.

CC is at interesting point in his career right now. To me anyway, he hit a Zenith with Almost Famous. That film was his baby, his dream project, crowning achievement etc. Sure it wasn't a hit, but I think the critical kudos and the awards he won for it offered some vindication. Trouble is, with that project out of the way, it looks like he doesn't really know what to do with himself. One of the worst things about Vanilla Sky is Crowe's whole "Look At Me! I Can Be Weird Too! I Can Prove It! Just Watch!" attitude. He's well versed in the classics, both rock and film, and it shows in his work. You know what his comfort zone is and we now know he'll fall flat on his face once he's outside of it, as always trying too hard. Crowe is aiming for the heights his heroes (Wilder, Truffaut, Wyler, Ashby) reached, but somewhat sadly, his bag of tricks isn't as deep as theirs (or better still, Crowe's is too shallow). Since Elizabethtown flopped, I can't help but think about what he'll do next.

After some thought, I bumped it to the top of the cue and finally watched it this afternoon. First, let me address Timi's points one by one:

On his cross-country road trip, he spreads part of his father's ashes at the Lorraine Motel? Where, of course, the soundtrack briefly lapses into "Pride (In the Name of Love."

Yeah, what was up with that? I threw the closest thing at hand (a hat BTW) at my TV, and I never throw things at the TV. CC going waaaaay too over the top in an attempt to be poignant.

Also, dude: Girls who make mix CDs for guys don't put "(single version)" after appropriate song titles.

Not only that, girls don't make mix cds w/Thunderclap Newman (the group w/the "single version") trax period. Aside from "Something In The Air." Maybe.

That said, I thought the film was a serviceable return to form. Dude's back in the comfort zone. I especially liked the first 12 or so minutes (the Hollies covering Judee Sill, Alec Baldwin=GOLD, Bloomps' suicide machine). After that it just wasn't as interesting or fun. Most of the characters weren't particularly well-drawn, aside from Dunst & Bloomps. I wanted more stuff w/the family. Seems like their (Sue Sarandon, the sister, the cousin) pay-offs came without a proper set-up.

As "going back home" films go, this was too much Garden State, too little Junebug.

Say Anything on the telly. Still so great.