|
Directed by: Cameron Crowe Starring: Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand Another one of my favorite movies of all time. This is a semi-autobiographical tale (slightly based off Cameron Crowe's own experiences as a writer for Rolling Stone) of William Miller (played by Patrick Fugit), a teenage boy who gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tour with fictional band, Stillwater (the members of the band are played by actors such as Billy Crudup and Jason Lee), and write about them for, you guessed it, Rolling Stone. While he tours along with them, he is put under the protective wing of Crudup and the leader of the groupies in denial (the "Band Aids"), Penny Lane, who is played by Kate Hudson. William also has to deal with his overprotective mother constantly trying to keep tabs on him (played by Frances McDormand) via telephone, as she stays at home. Throughout the film, William learns about life, falls in love, and learns the truth about fame and "rock'n'roll". It is in my opinion that this is the perfect example of a modern "coming of age" film. Quite rare in that most of these type of films usually come off as trite and contrived in these times. However, to me, this film will always remain genuine and a classic. Great performances all around, especially from Patrick Fugit, Frances McDormand, and Philip Seymour Hoffman (always a brilliant character actor, I hope he gets more recognition one day), who plays legendary rock critic Lester Bangs. 5 ouf of 5
|
#
?
May 2, 2004 21:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 16:27 |
|
|
I loved Almost Famous. It was funny, and sweet and had a great sound track. The Director's Cut (Untitled) is even better and adds in a lot of little things which flesh out the story quite a bit. 5. edit: I also actually fell in love with Kate Hudson because of this movie. I'm pretty sure that's what happened to the guy from the Black Crowes too. Quick Stop fucked around with this message at 21:30 on May 2, 2004 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2004 21:03
|
|
|
I'm not a big fan of dramas at all. I try to avoid them at all costs. With that said, this movie was amazing. Im not a fan of Cameron Crowe, but his direction was great as was the acting and you can't go wrong with great storytelling. 5/5
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2004 21:07
|
|
|
I found this to be the most boring, average, mediocre movie ever. I felt nothing for any of the characters at all. When I go home from a movie theater, I generally review the movie in my head on the way home. This and Matrix Revolutions are the only two movies that bored me so bad that I actually forgot what the movie was about by the time I got home. 3/5 for complete forgetfulness.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2004 21:12
|
|
|
The scene where Billy Crudup takes the LSD embodies all that is good in the world. This movie is fantastic. 5
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2004 21:15
|
|
|
The fact that this is my favorite movie has nothing to do with why I'm voting it five. Kate Hudson has everything to do with why I'm voting it five.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2004 00:32
|
|
|
This is an amazing movie based on the real life experiences of Cameron Crowe as a Rolling Stone reporter in rock's golden age (funny how in the movie Lester Bangs (brilliantly played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) says that "rock is dead"). Everything about this movie is right, from the cinematography, the music (soundtrack is excellent, if you are a fan of the movie I suggest you pick it up), and the characters are typecast near perfectly. I'm actually a little unimpressed with the casting of Patrick Fugit as William Miller, but other than that the movie is flawless in my opinion. 5/5
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2004 00:54
|
|
|
Well, I have to go against the grain here. I found this movie cringe-inducingly bad. The rose tinted glasses are so firmly in place, everything is covered in a saccharine gloss. Groupies with a heart o' gold, who actually use the term 'deflower'. Cloying sentimentality (for example, the 'Tiny Dancer' bus scene). And as for the scene where Crudup is disillusioned by the falseness of the music business, and the kids pull up in the car on queue to announce that they are 'just some 'real people'...it's Disney-approved rock n roll. Compare this scene to Richard Linklater's Dazed And Confused, a much better realized film about what it feels like to be a rock and roll kid in the 70s. The only redeeming features were the always on form McDormand and Hoffman, and even then you're seeing a rather limp Lester Bangs. Sorry guys 1/5 
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2004 01:10
|
|
|
quote:de_sadesky came out of the closet to say: But that's the thing. None of those things were true. The groupies really were kind of slutty. They were all so disillusioned with themselves in their packaged seventies happiness. The band was false, just another self-absorbed rock persona, and so was the lead singer. Even the party for "real people" was just another drug-addled group of self-indulged teenagers. Nobody in this film was truley good with the exception of the star, the young man. This film is less about rock and roll than it is about people so content in their self-righteous little fantasies that they will believe whatever they want to believe. The idealized are the rich and famous, who just so happen to be the worst people.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2004 01:17
|
|
|
quote:]-[ate_Sandwich came out of the closet to say: I agree with you to some extent that it deals with people inhabiting a cocoon like, self indulgent world, but all the examples I gave were played completely straight. Crowe is not presenting us with a clever satire of the excesses of rock music in the 70s. His film is a mostly sanitised glorification of a period of time he lived through.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2004 01:29
|
|
|
and I would say that those two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. He loved the glamour and he loved the rock culture, but he also saw it for what it really was. It's kind of like this: "I used to do crack." "Oh yeah, what was it like?" "It's great. It's crack. It gets you really high." Crowe's film is just an attempt to be honest with oneself about american pop-culture. It's a shallow, vindictive world that tells itself and the world that it is really important when it's really not important at all. Instead what is important is the family and friends we gather while we're out in the world, and a lot of the characters in the movie forsake that for the call of Rock and Roll. I'm just saying you should watch it again and try not to think that just because the movie looks like a disney after-school special that it really is an disney after-school special.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2004 01:36
|
|
|
One of my all time favourite movies. I thought Almost Famous was great, but I truly love Untitled, from the first frame to the last. The additional 39 minutes really enhances the story and fleshes out the characters a lot more. It also has, in my opinion, one of the greatest ensemble casts ever. Generally a large cast ensures you'll have a few one dimensional or undeveloped characters in there, but everyone is simply marvellous. For his first movie, Patrick Fugit is pretty good. Frances McDormand is wonderful as always, Kate Hudson is radiant, Jason Lee his normal dependable self, and the bit players (Anna Paquin, Fairuza Balk, Noah Taylor, Zooey Deschanel) do great jobs with their small roles. The film, however, belongs to two people. Philip Seymour Hoffman is perfect as Lester Bangs (check out the real Lester Bangs interviews on the DVD to see how spot on he is) and brings a sense of loneliness to the character that Crowe says was easy to forget. Billy Crudup is loving awesome as lead guitarist Russell Hammond, and particularly in the Untitled version, shows great depth...It's nice to see Crudup look like he's enjoying himself for once. If you listen to the audio commentary, you'll discover that much of the movie is true or based on truth -- Crowe is amused that a number of critics described William's sister discovering him at the airport after 4 years to be too far fetched, or those that argued that he wouldn't get a job at Rolling Stone by lowering his voice, yet they both happened, as did the deflowering, Crowe falling in love with a band aid who was in love with someone he was interviewing, as did the plane crash (twice -- while on tour with The Who, although they were not in the plane, and another time while with Heart -- in which there were many exchanges like that in the film...) Penny Lane is also based on a real character, being an amalgamation of a number of characters but being mainly based on Penny Trumble. I disagree with those that said it was saccharine sweet -- a movie can be a feel good movie without being artificial and overly sweet, and the film is an example of that. And needless to say, the soundtrack rocks. Whereas many rock and roll movies are utter crap (I'm talking to you Oliver Stone...), Crowes own experiences and sharp writing elevate this to the best of its genre. It was nice to see Crowe receive his well-deserved Oscar -- I thought Jerry Maguire was loving crap, but his work on this was A++. Needless to say, 5/5.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2004 12:13
|
|
|
This movie was an excellent way to show how difficult it is to hold on to those fifteen minutes, and how difficult it was to be one of the people behind the scenes. I'm willing to forgive the Hollywood sappiness of it, because the whole point is that these people are living in that fake, Hollywood sappiness. I thought it was well made and worth watching. 4.5
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2004 22:37
|
|
|
this is one of my favorite all time movies, great cast, sweet funny, sad and amusingly shallow. But Ill voice some criticisms here, firstly tho its 73 it seems like 83 or 93 at times, 73 was a very explosive time and maybe cameron should have acknowledged it more. Just because the band aids and stillwater may be somewhat oblivious (or maybe not) doesnt mean they couldnt touch on stuff like the war, nixon, civil rights etc. actually really like the use of the term deflowering, because thats what it was, rather unique, a man being deflowered (note, if it had been a 15 yr old girl and 3 older men there wouldve been freaking!) and he was also one of the girls at the point, which made it kinda lesbian as well (reinforced by the anna kiss). then later on they make him take out the laundry very much making him the bitch. Wish the directors cut was in aus, i give it 4/5
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2004 07:51
|
|
|
This movie is one of my favorites as well. I recomend buying the directors uncut version though, for several reasons, not least of which is simply that the addition of cut footage makes some of the hard to follow transitions in the regular movie easier to follow. Plus the easter egg scene of Penny Lane bopping about the room naked is worth the price of the DVD alone. And, everyone who loves the movie...should watch it at least once with the commentary on....you will not only gain insight into the movie and the history behind it, but about the rock scene of the early 70's as well. Point of information: There really was a rock [sort of Almond Bros genre southern rock] group named 'Stillwater'. They were not famous or anything and their albums are so rare it is beyond belief what I had to go through to get the two of them I do have. Their music was average for the period but listenable, but not enough so that I would encourage anyone to rush out and buy any of their albums, unless you just want to have a nice addition to your movie watching experience if you have friends over. Being able to bring out an actual 'Stillwater' album is a great conversation aid for after movie talk, and just generally neat for a fan of the movie to have.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2004 11:52
|
|
|
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. The acting can be somewhat cheesy at times (thanks Patrick Fugit), but overall it was good. I thought the casting was dead on for the rest of the characters. Jason Lee and Billy Crudup were perfect for their roles, as was Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs. And, like everybody else, I fell in love with Kate Hudson the first time I seen this. Awesome music too. 5/5. I've never seen the Bootleg Cut... Is it worth buying if I already have the original on DVD?
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2004 16:44
|
|
|
quote:Edison came out of the closet to say: 
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2004 19:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 16:27 |
|
|
quote:Squall91 came out of the closet to say: Nice. Well I'm selling my old copy on Ebay. I'll pick up the Bootleg cut after this thing sells.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2004 20:16
|
|