3 more hours left at ITS before I'm officially done and have to look towards training at SBHS. I know I should really start planning for my first few weeks of class at least regarding basics, but I just don't know where to begin. I guess that's another hold-up with first year teachers: where to begin.
I have a feeling I'm in for another unsatisfying weekend. ::sigh::
Apparently Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt collaborated on a music video for She & Him's Why Do You Let Me Stay Here while filming 500 Days of Summer. I've heard he's a good dancer so I guess the majority of the footage is actually him. Not sure about that backflip though...
#23: Almost Famous
Let me begin this entry with a conversation I'm tired of having.
Random Person: It's exactly like that part in Almost Famous! Remember that part when-
Me: I've actually never seen Almost Famous.
Random Person: Woah, what? No way! You'd love it! It's-
Me: Yea I bet I'd really like it. I own it I just never got around to-
Random Person: Dude you HAVE to see it. You'd love it. I can't believe you haven't seen it!
Me: Yea I really want to see it. Like I said I own it I just haven't got-
Random Person: That's crazy...haven't seen it...
I never had any doubt that I'd love this movie. For one, the love of my life Zooey Deschanel is in it. Secondly, although I'm not really a fan of the music the movie is about (no, I'm a heathen...I don't like Zeppelin or the Doors or any of those bands...) I love music enough that I can appreciate any movie that devotes itself to the topic. Finally, the movie lives up to its hype as one of those inspiring, mind-expanding, life-altering movies that sticks with you from the very first viewing. My sister got me the DVD a year or two ago and I just never got around to giving it a go. But here I am. And the aforementioned dialogue shall never be had again.
I don't know if this would still be considered a cult hit (or if it ever really was) because it's acclaim is now fairly wide. I know it didn't do well in theaters, but I haven't met anyone who did not enjoy this movie. Kate Hudson, an actress I normally dislike immensely given her apparently unjudicious approach to accepting roles, was excellent in this movie as an ostensible free spirit with a lot more to her than she lets on. Patrick Fugit (a.k.a. the ceaselessly likeable William Miller) gives one of the most endearing performances I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. And Billy Crudup, an actor who is (justifiably) gaining acclaim with recent roles in big-ticket movies such as The Watchmen and Public Enemies plays Russell Hammond to a T--that is, he makes a fictional character seem so real you'd think he and his band Stillwater released a record sitting in your collection somewhere between Janis Joplin and The Who.
But this movie is one of those cases in which a supporting actor stole the show. Phillip Seymour Hoffman's role as journalist and oft-absent mentor and spiritual guide for William Miller is a part that you can't help but love, and one you wish had more screen time. His devotion to Rock and Roll with capital R's is entirely convincing--so much so that it's admirable. Any dialogue he is a part of instantaneously becomes a profound monologue in which he muses frantically over the state of music, hardly seeming to compact all his thoughts into whatever passes through his lips. While his part in the movie couldn't really have been expanded upon more than it was, every second of screen-time he was given was a delight.
The wide scope of approaches to music that Almost Famous covers is just one more notch on the film's belt. You get the popular musicians, the up-and-coming musicians, the managers, the industry, the groupies, the fans, the fanatics, the journalists, and the mothers of the world desperately trying to suppress anything that could spoil innocence. Each category is subtly different and the power struggle is evident throughout the movie--and I believe very deliberate. A sort of harmony is reached by the end but no identities are compromised. The happy ending successfully avoids cliche status.
The scene--I mean THE scene, the crux, the climax, the fulcrum--of this movie is the infamous plane scene. Watching the members of Stillwater spew confessions at each other convinced that they've met their end, and all getting cut off by a suddenly brazen William Miller, is simultaneously intense, hysterical, and heart-breaking. The expressions on their faces upon survival are priceless as they walk down the airport corridor more distraught than thankful. It's one of those priceless movie scenes that is able to invoke emotion in the viewers who suddenly sense that the movie is drawing to a close, even if they aren't ready for it.
My inevitable viewing of this film was long overdue. It didn't disappoint. Every positive word you hear about this movie is true. So for those of you who haven't seen it...wait..you haven't seen it? You'd love it! What's wrong with you?! You have to go see it! I can't believe you haven't seen it...
No comments:
Post a Comment