Cameron Crowe is gross

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Don't you think? I can't remember a movie of his I've liked since Say Anything, of which I was never really a huge fan. He seems to be a genuine film-lover, whatever that means, but between the Billy Wilder name-dropping (every five seconds I swear) and Vanilla Sky, I just can't take this guy seriously.

I actually can proudly claim to own the Vanilla Sky DVD--I picked up a promo copy at work and took it home out of some morbid fascination. Man, this movie is bad (incidentally I kinda liked Open Your Eyes, but didn't think it was any great whoop, especially with that drawn-out third act). And the badness is just compounded by the goddamn self-important special features. It becomes very clear after about five minutes of the making-of doc that Crowe himself has no idea what this movie's about--he keeps describing it as some sort of holy enigma--even though it's pretty freaking clear. Also, he describes the original as a "folk song, or a great late-night conversation. [He] want[ed] to be part of that conversation."

So I guess I'll distill this down to: I don't like Cameron Crowe, do you?

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 1 May 2003 02:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, because he loves actors, although I wish he'd actually cast actors who deserve his love.

― b.R.A.d. (Brad), Thursday, 1 May 2003 02:37 (twenty-two years ago)

What does it matter that he loves actors?

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 1 May 2003 02:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Because it means he can express his empathy for the characters, and his characters' empathy for each other. (Or in warm fuzzy language, because it means he loves people.)

― b.R.A.d. (Brad), Thursday, 1 May 2003 02:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure I buy that. How is this expressed in, say, Vanilla Sky?

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 1 May 2003 02:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Vanilla Sky is better than Open Your Eyes because while both contain empty philosophical posturing, the first has some interesting takes on pop-culture.

― ryan, Thursday, 1 May 2003 02:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Like what?

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 1 May 2003 03:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(sorry if I seem bitchy but his movies really rub me the wrong way)

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 1 May 2003 03:01 (twenty-two years ago)

ok, well nothing profound or anything. i just like how his recreated life is simply an accumulation of his favorite songs, movies, etc.

is that the paradise we would choose?

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

― ryan, Thursday, 1 May 2003 03:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I just don't think that worked at all, his recreated life being a collage of all the pop culture he loved. It felt tacked on. Like, he got with a girl with brown hair, so that's because he liked Jeanne Moreau? Who's he trying to kid?

Also, Penelope Cruz was close to unbearable.

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 1 May 2003 03:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Everyone who likes this guy should listen to the director's commentary on the Vanilla Sky disc, where his wife accompanies his commentary on acoustic guitar.

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 1 May 2003 03:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Say Anything = Worst. Movie. Ever.

(Well, sort of)

― rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 1 May 2003 04:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"his wife accompanies his commentary on acoustic guitar". are you serious? that hurts just hearing about it.

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.

― PVC (peeveecee), Thursday, 1 May 2003 04:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I like more of his films than I hate, but I hate hate hate Vanilla Sky. It's sooooo insulting. The extended expostulation at the end where the stand-in for Crowe fucking *explains* the entire movie for ten minutes, including spelling out for us/Cruise the Bob Dylan album cover bit, makes me want to beat Crowe with a crowbar (haha) and scream, "Yeah, I fucking got it the first time, right?" Open Your Eyes has almost none of this which is why it's a superior film.

― kyle, Thursday, 1 May 2003 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, that Bob Dylan cover thing was outrageous. I have a naive love for Almost Famous, warts 'n all, and I never thought Crowe would have a film as bad as V.S. in him.

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.

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Thursday, 1 May 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

as much as I loathe it vanilla is interesting to me in a similar way to Gus VanSants PSYCHO remake. So similar to the originals that they become surreal to watch.

― PVC (peeveecee), Thursday, 1 May 2003 19:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know what I think of Cameron Crowe aside from "eh." but J. Hoberman made the insightly comment that Almost Famous was not about rock criticism, it was about celebrity journalism.

― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 1 May 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

if Almost Famous was about a crappy cabaret act instead of a hard rock band it would get to be called "campy" instead of corny or unrealistic or whatever.

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

― jones (actual), Thursday, 1 May 2003 22:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I really like Cameron Crowe - some of his films more than others, but also just as a person. He seems to have a genuine love for what he does - case in point, on the Fast Times At Ridgemont High DVD commentary, him and the director keep talking for like, 10 or more minutes after the movie has finished (credits and all!)

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

― Mil, Friday, 2 May 2003 07:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Vanilla Sky is simply fucking insane. I try not to think about it. His other movies are naive and often contrived (even Say Anything failed to get an actress who acts like the person all the guys claim she is), but they're usually sweet and filled with smart scenes. I liked him a lot more before Vanilla Sky and before I realized how simpy he can be and how stupid his Billy Wilder fetish is.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 2 May 2003 21:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think that guy can speak more than four or five sentences without mentioning BW's name.

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

― slutsky (slutsky), Friday, 2 May 2003 21:43 (twenty-two years ago)

It took a more well-adjusted friend to make me realize how masochistic the Apartment is (though I still think it has some great parts). So when Crowe says he watches it before every film he directs, I had to shudder.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 2 May 2003 21:45 (twenty-two years ago)

puke

― slutsky (slutsky), Friday, 2 May 2003 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to think Wilder was the shit, but his films seem more and more empty the older i get.

― ryan (ryan), Friday, 2 May 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

yeesh. I'm not a big fan, but this is ridiculous. Crowe likes a lot of Wilder's films, just like you and I like a lot of films. how is that a 'fetish'?

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 3 May 2003 02:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Cameron Crowe even he is is hamhandedly manipulative. And in re: Crowe/Wilder - I know this is the sort of question that gets everybody shouting when it's a music question in ILM, but do the people here who like Billy Wilder think/imagine they'd've dug him as much if they'd've been seing his movies as they were released? 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, 3 May 2003 11:50 (twenty-two years ago)

"Say Anything," aside from the mistake of casting Ione Skye as any kind of genius, already looks like one now.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 3 May 2003 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

(i'm having none of this billy wilder business but the bit where J0hn says JM roolz is otm)

― jones (actual), Saturday, 3 May 2003 19:33 (twenty-two years ago)

i think 'say anything' holds up well in every sense...'fast times' is unimpeachable, too, i think...

'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'.

― Dallas Yertle (Dallas Yertle), Sunday, 4 May 2003 11:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Say Anything is kind of a generational touchstone. I remember a friend beating me with it (figuratively) when I became momentarily obsessed with Steely Dan. "You know who listens to Steely Dan? That old guy in Say Anything!" I also remember an old girlfriend saying that I had described her to someone else in such a way that "I sound like that annoying girl from Say Anything." Then of course there's the constantly-invoked iconography of John Cusack in the raincoat holding the boom box playing "In Your Eyes" (ack) over his head. I don't think I really have an opinion on this film except that it's heartwarming and occasionally very accurate and also occasionally very ugly (visually). My thoughts on Crowe in general: I don't have many, except that he uses the telephoto lens a lot and sometimes cuts in without changing the angle too much, which makes me jumpy. Almost Famous seemed too ashamed of its own sentimentality (which was awesome) for me to warm to it, and Jerry Maguire I just don't remember too well having only seen it on TV. I remember mildly liking and disliking parts of it. In fact it shared with some of Wilder's later fillms the habit of wanting to put little asterisks next to all of its snappy lines ("You had me at hello" "Show me the money") and highlighting the enormous likeability of its characters a bit too much for my taste. But I may be projecting a bit; certainly the ubiquity of those phrases and the icky star persona of Tom Cruise can't be blamed on Crowe.

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 4 May 2003 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

let me just say--that even though I think Mr. Crowe is gross--I had a great experience watching Jerry Maguire by myself on a sunny summer day downtown & walked out with a big smile on my face.

― slutsky (slutsky), Sunday, 4 May 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

the icky star persona of Tom Cruise can't be blamed on Crowe

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)

― jones (actual), Sunday, 4 May 2003 17:24 (twenty-two years ago)

crowe's t.cruise pictures are also the easiest to play the "every film t.cruise has ever made is an allegory for the career of t.cruise up to that point" game with

― jones (actual), Sunday, 4 May 2003 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

then vanilla sky is allegory for cruise trapped in scientology nightmare world?

― slutsky (slutsky), Sunday, 4 May 2003 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

yes!!

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

― jones (actual), Sunday, 4 May 2003 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

the scene in JM where he's driving and can't find a song on the radio to sing along with and relate to and then he does and it's the appalling "freefalling" by t.petty and he erupts into rapturous song and beats with delight on the steering-wheel is multilayered and tremendous

― jones (actual), Sunday, 4 May 2003 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

It's funny we haven't really touched on CC's much-celebrated use of popular music in his movies.

― slutsky (slutsky), Sunday, 4 May 2003 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

i've just touched on it for the second time!!

― jones (actual), Sunday, 4 May 2003 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I love the fact that the first song we hear in AF is "The Chipmunk Song" (which R. Meltzer was especially incensed by)

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 4 May 2003 18:01 (twenty-two years ago)

it's jingle-shorthand for FUCK OFF BANGSSPOTTERS THIS IS NOT THE FILM FOR YOU

― jones (actual), Sunday, 4 May 2003 18:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Oddly enough Lisa Germano was originally supposed to write and record the entire soundtrack for Vanilla Sky. I don't know why this didn't wind up happening; she apparently did write it and record most of it and might put it out later this year. It seems like a really weird fit though since the film is so wrapped up it it's pop references.

― kyle, Sunday, 4 May 2003 18:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Everything about the marketing and buzz for Vanilla Sky--its casting of my least favorite Hollywood actors, its tie-dyed poster, its bombastic effects shown off in the trailer, its "metaphysical" conceit, its being remade from a pretty dull Spanish film, the terrible theme song by Paul McCarney--screamed "DO NOT SEE ME!!"

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 4 May 2003 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I forgot about the Paul McCartney song. Also: worst title ever (I heard he was also going to call Almost Famous Vanilla Sky, then decided to "save" it)

― slutsky (slutsky), Sunday, 4 May 2003 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

the bit on the dvd where mccartney explains the songwriting process for that is pathos city

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

― jones (actual), Sunday, 4 May 2003 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

the pop references in Vanilla Sky were disgusting and superfluous to the story. And I must admit I was horrified that Cruise's character was the kind of guy who'd have a big poster of Jules & Jim and clearly not have the mental capacity to get the movie for anything more than a girl in cool clothes. One of the big problems with that movie is that Cruise's character was a real shmuck but Crowe was too busy making love to Cruise with the camera to notice. You ever notice one of the very few scenes that doesn't feature Cruise is the obligatory Girl Reflects On The Fact That She Just Kissed Tom Cruise Moment? Made worse by the fact that Cruz was "acting" pho-net-tee-kall-eee.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 4 May 2003 19:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude it's not like Jules and Jim is all that deep.

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.

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 4 May 2003 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, I like Risky Business and some of the films he made when he was young, when he was still proving his charm and his cockiness had a striving quality. Now he plays "against" it which only makes it more visible and unbearable.

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 4 May 2003 19:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude it's not like Jules and Jim is all that deep.

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.

― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 4 May 2003 20:06 (twenty-two years ago)

It was waaaay deeper than what Cruise's pinhead character could have conceived, amateurist. It was pretty clear the character couldn't tell the difference between a movie and a poster.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 4 May 2003 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually this might be more clever than you think, if you read it a certain way. There were a few people I met in college who had Breathless posters on the wall without having even seen the movie.

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 4 May 2003 20:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd agree with you Crowe USED this fact. One of the problems with the movie is how the camera adores him despite his lack of adorability (besides being Senor Cruise).

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 4 May 2003 20:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Cruise just seems too aware of the camera, too self-conscious. It's what removes his smugness from the realm of virtuosic portrayal (cf. Cary Grant) to the totally off-putting.

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 4 May 2003 20:14 (twenty-two years ago)

don't forget the climax, where Crowe spins his camera around the new messiah as he embraces the vanilla sky. and we all cried...for it to "stop."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 4 May 2003 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

It was pretty clear the character couldn't tell the difference between a movie and a poster.

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.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Monday, 5 May 2003 10:50 (twenty-two years ago)

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.

― Nicole (Nicole), Monday, 5 May 2003 16:11 (twenty-two years ago)

(i hope my response to justyn's "chipmunk song" post doesn't read like i'm snapping at him, cuz i'm not. i just couldn't get over how many rock-crit types panned AF based on its inaccuracies in that dept. - and the j.hoberman comment upthread [Almost Famous was not about rock criticism, it was about celebrity journalism] is just as shortsighted: it wasn't ABOUT either one of those things)

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 17:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it was about Home: flight from home as Home: what is Home: where is Home, among other things.

― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

What's the point of summarizing a film like that?

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, well I guess the point is to say that it was the homesickness and finding himself part that you related to, and the rock stuff was just the milieu and was almost interchangeable with another milieu, right?

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

but it's also the cockrock velvet goldmine

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

i mean: yes mainly it's a coming-of-age movie and the "home" theme plays a part but so do the various crush-on-yr-idols threads, which are aimed all over the place in a very innocent and sweet and - to me - resonant way (who DIDN'T have the "what if rockstar x came over to my house and HUNG OUT IN MY ROOM" daydream? ok yes that's about "celebrity" but as far the audience is concerned, the story the kid's supposed to write is neither here nor there once those things start happening).

(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)

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 18:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Jones, I can see what you mean by your first point there. I thought the potentially nice and bittersweet potential of this was kind of thrown out the window by the last act, where mr. rock star saves the kid's ass--at this point it turned into just total wish fulfillment, which I think is less interesting.

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

― slutsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

haha i got so wrapped up in my own version of this movie, i forgot that it's supposed to be autobiographical! this is probably a bad time to mention that crowe's RS career means virtually nothing to me, isn't it?

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

also my AF/VG comparison is based on a very non-expert understanding of both duderock and glam, so there you go. (i'm listening to Free right now tho!! and one of the dudes on the record sleeve looks just like jason lee in AF, who was ~~hot~~ cool)

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 20:02 (twenty-two years ago)

"Why bother beatmix at all?"

― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Any man who is married to Nancy Wilson cannot be all bad. I like Say Anything and Almost Famous but I feel in touch with their inherent flaws. Vanilla Sky bugged me but more becuase I cannot stand Tom Cruise.

― Eve, Wednesday, 7 May 2003 01:14 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

What's the name of the song that is being played during the end credits of Almost Famous?

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

― Lovelace (Lovelace), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:06 (eighteen years ago)

His take on romantic relationships is really creepy.

― horseshoe (horseshoe), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:06 (eighteen years ago)

CLASSIC for Fast Times At Ridgemont High (highly recommending the book here, sorry ILFilm).

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 22:40 (eighteen years ago)

His take on romantic relationships is really creepy.

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

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

― waterfalls of latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 06:41 (eighteen years ago)

I think the song Lovelace is looking for is "Feel Flows" by the Beach Boys. You can get it on the soundtrack or their Surf's Up album.

― The Dusty Baker Selection (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 20:08 (eighteen years ago)

seven months pass...

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.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 2 July 2007 05:39 (seventeen years ago)

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

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 2 July 2007 05:40 (seventeen years ago)

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

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 2 July 2007 05:42 (seventeen years ago)

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

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 2 July 2007 05:44 (seventeen years ago)

Great cast, but Jesus.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 2 July 2007 05:46 (seventeen years ago)

Taking this to ILE.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 2 July 2007 05:50 (seventeen years ago)

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)

― bobby bedelia, Monday, 2 July 2007 06:01 (seventeen 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.

― C. Grisso/McCain, Wednesday, 4 July 2007 01:44 (seventeen years ago)

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.

― C. Grisso/McCain, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 01:11 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

Say Anything on the telly. Still so great.

― The Devil's Avocado (Gukbe), Saturday, 19 September 2009 16:06 (fifteen years ago)

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