I chose to critique a film that I have been thinking about seeing, but have not yet seen. This movie, Almost Famous is about a fifteen year old reporter who was given the opportunity to follow a rock band on their US tour. This film is in part an autobiography because the director, Cameron Crowe was a teenage reporter for the Rolling Stone magazine.
The critic that I chose to critique is A.O. Scott of the New York Times. After reading his critique of this movie, I’m not sure that I want to see the film as much as I had originally thought I would when I first began this assignment. Scott obviously loved the movie, and thought that the director was fabulous. “He may be the least cynical director working in Hollywood today, (Scott)” and then later, “As a screenwriter, Mr. Crowe is an unmatched comic portraitist who rarely stoops to a caricature. (Scott)” It has been my experience in the past that there usually is at least one thing that one won’t like in any particular movie, whether it be the way a certain character was portrayed or what have you, however in Scott’s critique of this movie I couldn’t seem to find any flaws, at least in his opinion, about this movie.
Scott does, quite nicely probe into the dark psychological underbelly of this movie. He states “But while he acknowledges that human beings can be cruel, self-destructive and dishonest, Mr. Crowe declines to probe too deeply into the darkness and irrationality of the human heart. (Scott)” This movie is based in the 60/70’s time era and it deals with a lot of drug use and drug abuse issues. Scott however believes that the drug and alcohol use within the move was somewhat necessary for the viewer in order for them to capture the full essence of the time period and the rock and roll lifestyle.
Scott’s descriptions of the characters in the movie, if accurate, seem pretty entertaining. They sound as though they would play off each others strengths and weaknesses and create a short of chemistry on screen that could make even the worst storyline bearable. “Although she is decidedly eccentric and a bit hysterical about the evils of pop music ("They're obviously on drugs," she fumes, pointing to the clean-cut portrait on the cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bookends"), Ms. McDormand's Elaine Miller is far from the standard uptight movie mom. The bonds between her and William are strong and complicated. (Scott)” Casting in a movie is not that important of a factor for me when choosing a movie to watch, but what is important to me is that the actors can portray their characters in a believable fashion, and that the actors that they chose to play certain roles, fit the role that they are portraying. For some reason, I cannot see Kate Hudson in this movie, maybe because I have seen her in such movies as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but Scott seems to like her portrayal of a young groupie who will do everything but have sex with the band mates.
All in all I thought that Scott’s descriptions of the movie sounded interesting but I think he could have been more helpful if would have been a little bit more negative on certain aspects of the film.
The critic that I chose to critique is A.O. Scott of the New York Times. After reading his critique of this movie, I’m not sure that I want to see the film as much as I had originally thought I would when I first began this assignment. Scott obviously loved the movie, and thought that the director was fabulous. “He may be the least cynical director working in Hollywood today, (Scott)” and then later, “As a screenwriter, Mr. Crowe is an unmatched comic portraitist who rarely stoops to a caricature. (Scott)” It has been my experience in the past that there usually is at least one thing that one won’t like in any particular movie, whether it be the way a certain character was portrayed or what have you, however in Scott’s critique of this movie I couldn’t seem to find any flaws, at least in his opinion, about this movie.
Scott does, quite nicely probe into the dark psychological underbelly of this movie. He states “But while he acknowledges that human beings can be cruel, self-destructive and dishonest, Mr. Crowe declines to probe too deeply into the darkness and irrationality of the human heart. (Scott)” This movie is based in the 60/70’s time era and it deals with a lot of drug use and drug abuse issues. Scott however believes that the drug and alcohol use within the move was somewhat necessary for the viewer in order for them to capture the full essence of the time period and the rock and roll lifestyle.
Scott’s descriptions of the characters in the movie, if accurate, seem pretty entertaining. They sound as though they would play off each others strengths and weaknesses and create a short of chemistry on screen that could make even the worst storyline bearable. “Although she is decidedly eccentric and a bit hysterical about the evils of pop music ("They're obviously on drugs," she fumes, pointing to the clean-cut portrait on the cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bookends"), Ms. McDormand's Elaine Miller is far from the standard uptight movie mom. The bonds between her and William are strong and complicated. (Scott)” Casting in a movie is not that important of a factor for me when choosing a movie to watch, but what is important to me is that the actors can portray their characters in a believable fashion, and that the actors that they chose to play certain roles, fit the role that they are portraying. For some reason, I cannot see Kate Hudson in this movie, maybe because I have seen her in such movies as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but Scott seems to like her portrayal of a young groupie who will do everything but have sex with the band mates.
All in all I thought that Scott’s descriptions of the movie sounded interesting but I think he could have been more helpful if would have been a little bit more negative on certain aspects of the film.
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