From the Chicago Reader (September 22, 2000). — J.R.
Almost Famous
Rating ** Worth seeing
Directed and written by Cameron Crowe
With Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Zooey Deschanel.
Duets
Rating ** Worth seeing
Directed by Bruce Paltrow
Written by John Byrum
With Maria Bello, Andre Braugher, Paul Giamatti, Huey Lewis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scott Speedman, Kiersten Warren, and Angie Dickinson.
Cameron Crowe’s first feature as writer-director, Say Anything… (1989), lost money, which broke my heart. His third feature, Jerry Maguire (1996), cleaned up, which broke my spirit. (In between was another romantic comedy, the 1992 Singles, which I barely remember.) You might conclude that I was out of step with the audiences that passed on Say Anything… — though I was hardly the only reviewer who fell for it — and with those who went to Jerry Maguire in droves. I prefer to believe that I was out of step with the publicity for each movie. Say Anything… didn’t get much. But Jerry Maguire was pushed hard, as a Tom Cruise movie rather than anything created by a mere writer-director, and much of it struck me as transparent Oscar mongering — with the film’s “Show me the money!” Read more
Here are some links to some pieces of mine that are available online elsewhere, in chronological order. Many of them include various lists of their own. — J.R.
10 Favorite Offbeat Musicals (March 2006):
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/10_offbeat_musicals.htm
Ten Overlooked Noirs (April 2006):
www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/noir.htm
A Dozen Eccentric Westerns (June 2006):
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/westerns.htm
Ten Neglected Science Fiction Movies (August 2006):
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/sci-fi.htm
Ten Overlooked Fantasy Films on TV (and Two That Should be Available) (October 2006):
www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/fantasy.htm
A Dozen Undervalued Movie Satires (January 2007):
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/dozen_undervalued_movie_satires.htm
Eleven Treasures of Jazz Performance on DVD (April 2007):
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/eleven_treasures_of_jazz_on_dvd.htm
18 Thrillers You Might Have Missed… (July 2007):
www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/18_thrillers_you_might_have_missed.htm
Ten Underappreciated John Ford Films (December 2007):
www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/ten_underappreciated_john_ford_films.htm
My Dozen Favorite Non-Region-1 Box Sets (June 2008):
www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/dozen_favorite_nonR1_boxsets.htm
My Dozen Favorite Non-Region-1 Single-disc DVDs (November 2008):
www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/dozen_favorite_nonR1_single-disc.htm
Trial and Era (on Jim McBride’s early films) (posted April 3, 2009):
http://www.artforum.com/film/id=22423
The Consequences of Fame (on Roman Polanski’s arrest, posted Sept. 19, 2009):
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/the-polanski-uproar/#jonathan
Tony Tony Tony (on The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, posted December 23, 2009):
http://www.artforum.com/film/id=24395
Great 30s Movies on DVD (…and a few more that should be available) (February 2010):
www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/great_30s_movies_on_dvd.htm
Too Many Greats Ignored (on the Oscars, posted March 4, 2010):
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/do-the-oscars-undermine-artistry/#jonathan
Gertrud and Light in August (posted October 26, 2010):
www.criterion.com/current/posts/1635-gertrud-and-light-in-august Read more
From the Chicago Reader (September 26, 2003). — J.R.
Anything Else
* (Has redeeming facet)
Directed and written by Woody Allen
With Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Allen, Stockard Channing, Danny DeVito, Jimmy Fallon, and Diana Krall.
The least valuable criticism we have of Charlie Chaplin maintains that he was a tremendously gifted comic until he started taking himself too seriously. My quarrel starts with the underlying assumption that the greatness of any comic artist can be measured with a laugh meter. I’ll readily grant that there’s more to laugh at in The Circus (1928) than in Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), or A King in New York (1957), but that doesn’t make it a better movie. The other three offer some of the richest experiences in the history of cinema, and if quality of emotion counts for more than quantity, especially in comic works, they’re remarkable for their sharpness, depth, and complexity. They are all narcissistic reveries, yet none of them can be reduced to Chaplin assessing his own persona — though this is undoubtedly one reason they’re of interest.
I’d be prepared to make a similar case for the virtually impossible to find last feature of Preston Sturges, an independent effort known in French as Les carnets du Major Thompson and in English as The French They Are a Funny Race (1955). Read more
