Pearl Jam Twenty, a brand new Cameron Crowe movie, is out on DVD today. The documentary is Crowe’s ode not only to the multi-platinum band who came to personify the Nineties grunge movement, but also to music in the last twenty years as a whole. Crowe uses Pearl Jam as the conduit to tell the story of how grunge in the 1990s changed the cultural landscape much in the way rock in the Sixties, disco in the Seventies or metal in the Eighties changed how people lived their lives. From there, it shows how a group of people who’ve grown apart in many ways can find a common ground to still bring joy to people’s lives after two decades.
Told with humor and passion, Crowe’s Pearl Jam Twenty is a fine film even if you could care less about the band. For a little taste of what it has to offer, the IMDB has exclusively released a full length, never-before-seen music video for Pearl Jam’s 1995 single Not For You, directed by Crowe, combining current and archival footage. Check it out after the jump. Read More »
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Cameron Crowe might have been MIA for a few years but he’s back in full force in 2011 with two documentaries and his latest narrative movie, We Bought A Zoo. The film stars Matt Damon as a single father who decides to move his family to a downtrodden zoo. Based on a true story, We Bought A Zoo also features Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Patrick Fugit, Elle Fanning, John Michael Higgins and more. It’s scheduled for release December 23. Check out the first trailer after the jump. Read More »
Sometimes even the best of us get stuck with our foot in our mouth. That seems to be what happened with Cameron Crowe earlier this month when he told an audience he would consider making a sequel to Say Anything and that he’d spoken to John Cusack about it. He has thought about where kickboxer Lloyd Dobler and valedictorian Diane Court might go after the end of the film and he has spoken to Cusack about it, but it was years ago and at this point, Crowe doesn’t want to ruin that personal film with an unnecessary sequel. Read exactly what he said, and some of his ideas about where it could have went, after the jump. Read More »
Besides making a bunch of new movies and teasing fans about a possible idea for Say Anything 2, Cameron Crowe is letting his official website – The Uncool – dig into his archives. Over the next few days they’re going to be publishing previously lost scenes from Crowe’s directorial debut, Say Anything. All the scenes are from his January 18, 1988 final shooting script. The first one extends the opening of the now classic film, starring John Cusack, Ione Skye and Lili Taylor in which Lloyd speaks with Corey and D.C. about calling Diane. It’s more of an extension than a full fledged deletion, but it’s a great read none the less. Check it out, and link to an extension of the graduation speech scene, after the jump. Read More »
After a six year hiatus, Cameron Crowe is about to come back in a big way with three films released in five months: The music documentaries Pearl Jam Twenty and The Union as well as the narrative film, We Bought A Zoo. Like all of his previous films, though, these are singular stories. Crowe’s never been much of as a sequel guy. However, during the annual Television Critics Association press tour, when asked if he’d ever do a sequel to Say Anything, Crowe said the following:
I do kind of think there might be another chapter to that. I’ve thought about it from time to time, and talked to John Cusack about it. Lloyd Dobler might be back. It’s the only thing I’ve written that I would consider doing that with.
Can he possibly be serious? After the jump, read more about that as well as his choice of composer on We Bought a Zoo, Sigur Ros member Jonsi. Read More »
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?
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If you’re more interested in the typical fall slate of festival entrees than summer’s glut of tentpole action fare, this is a great week. The Toronto International Film Festival announced the first wave of films that will play the fest in September. This is a batch of about 50 titles, which makes up only a small chunk of the programming. Usually TIFF features between two and three hundred films. But these are some of the highest-profile entries.
Below you’ll find rundowns on the new films from George Clooney, Bennett Miller, Jay & Mark Duplass, Todd Solondz, Francis Ford Coppola, Cameron Crowe, Sarah Polley, Fernando Meirelles, Lars von Trier, Marc Forster, Steve McQueen, Alexander Payne, and Lynne Ramsay. No announcement yet of the Midnight Madness programming choices, always some of my faves, but this is a great start. Read More »
Six years have passed since we last saw a new Cameron Crowe movie and now we get three in five months. It starts in September with Pearl Jam Twenty, Crowe’s documentary on the influential Seattle grunge band. Then in December Crowe returns to narrative filmmaking with We Bought a Zoo starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, followed quickly in January by The Union, his documentary about Elton John‘s collaboration with Leon Russell. The first two films will be released in theaters but HBO has picked up The Union and will air it in January 2012. Read the press release and more after the break. Read More »
