Cameron Crowe
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Connections, in both directions
About ten to fifteen years ago, there was a spurt of teen films based on classics from Jane Austen's "Emma" in "Clueless" to Shakespeare in "10 Things I Hate About You" and "O." "Easy A" updates the convention with referential homage to the films of John Hughes and John Cusack's iconic "Say Anything" boom box scene, both of which are merged in the film's climax.
Chivalry and decency are repeatedly valued and this nostalgic longing hearkens back to plenty of ‘80s teen comedies in the same vein, including Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Say Anything... Olive even name-checks John Hughes directly.
Royal and director Will Gluck strike comic gold when paying homage to iconic scenes in teen movies, especially that wonderfully sappy bit from “Say Anything” with Penn Badgley (“Gossip Girl”) subbing handsomely for a boombox-lifting John Cusack.
It’s obvious he has a thing for John Hughes/Cameron Crowe ’80s teen comedies (which Olive makes reference to at one point) – and why wouldn’t he? Sixteen Candles and Say Anything are some of the genre’s classics.
Easy A brings to mind Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Can’t Buy Me Love and Say Anything.
Hughes’ classics are referenced frequently; music – even a clip – from ”The Breakfast Club” plays) as well as other seminal 80s teen films (”Cant Buy Me Love”, ”Say Anything”), ”Easy A” is a light but nicely crafted comedy about a young girl who (Similarly to Ronald Miller in ”Cant Buy Me Love”) lies her ass off to be popular.
The Spectacular Now (2013)
Directed by James Ponsoldt
influenced by Say Anything... (1989)
Plot Characters Themes
There are also moments that will recall, for many viewers, its most obvious influence, Say Anything — though it’s worth noting that the film is so engrossing, those parallels didn’t even occur to this viewer until well after it was over (which is saying something, since a second viewing confirms it follows the earlier picture nearly beat for beat).
Sutter recalls John Cusack in "Say Anything," and the character brings some of that teenager's gifts — of gab and a stealthy sincerity — to bear on a lovely new friendship.
That said, The Spectacular Now is one of the rare truly soulful and authentic teen movies, like last year’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower or the classic one from 24 years ago that this one most reminded me of: Say Anything.
If this film (adapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber from a novel by Tim Tharp) has an antecedent in the teen-movie universe, it’s Cameron Crowe’s 1989 classic Say Anything .
The teen movie “The Spectacular Now” begins like “Say Anything” but soon turns into “Drink Anything.”
Thankfully, it turns out that Sutter getting his obliviousness to how uncharming his screwed-up-edness is stripped away is going to be the point of this, perhaps the most down-to-gritty-earth teen movie since Say Anything… and a helluva lot more stark than that film ever got.
Vanilla Sky had the potential to be a mindbending thriller on par with the likes of Jacob's Ladder.
Seemingly inspired by the "what is reality" works of the likes of Philip K. Dick ("Total Recall") and the early efforts of Bruce Joel Rubin ("Jacob's Ladder"), the plot is convoluted but not distractingly so, and contains an ending that's supposed to blow viewers away.
A vinyl-collector’s version of “Jacob’s Ladder,” 2001’s “Vanilla Sky” bravely dove into surreal, head-swimming sci-fi — casting Tom Cruise as an unhinged, maimed malcontent and examining the folly of substituting entertainment for experience.
We're immersed in the psychological, the pathological, even the metaphysical, with echoes of such diverse influences as Cruise's own Eyes Wide Shut and the under-appreciated 1990 thriller Jacob's Ladder.
American Honey (2016)
Directed by Andrea Arnold
influenced by Almost Famous (2000)
Music Themes Visuals
To that end, the scene in which the hobo clan collectively sings Lady Antebellum’s “American Honey” gives sentimental vibes of the “Tiny Dancer” sing-along in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous.
Sometimes American Honey even plays like a grittier version of Almost Famous.
• Lady Antebellum’s title track provides a road-trip moment reminiscent of the sing-along to “Tiny Dancer” in Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous.”
Andrea Arnold’s American Honey doesn’t contain musical numbers, exactly; its interludes are more like the “Tiny Dancer” scene from Almost Famous crossed with a low-budget music video.
They also sing and dance along with whatever pop or hip-hop songs come on the van’s muffled sound system—great, if you thought Almost Famous should have consisted of nothing but “Tiny Dancer” scenes.
A penultimate sing along to the country song American Honey movie derived its title from (a song which, after 2 hours and 45 minutes of build up, reveals itself to be god awful) is a shameless retread of the Tiny Dancer sequence from Almost Famous.
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
influenced by Almost Famous (2000), Say Anything... (1989)
Themes
I evoked the name of Cameron Crowe earlier because, watching Licorice Pizza, I got many of the same vibes I had during Crowe’s two best movies, Say Anything and Almost Famous.
Characters are more sketched-in than wholly-formed as Anderson emphasizes referencing films as diverse as “Almost Famous” and “Taxi Driver,” “The Great Gatsby” and “Love Story” as well as his own “Punch Drunk Love” and “Boogie Nights.”
Somewhat reminiscent of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (and “Almost Famous,” marginally), this intimate, amusing film moves through seemingly random events in the lives of these two personas as they navigate adolescence, burgeoning careers, friendships, family, and young love.
And unlike the re-examining of Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographic “Almost Famous,” Anderson manages to keep the budding physical aspects of the romantic involvement limited to innocent revelations and devoid of prurient material.
Many a film has been made about this era, Almost Famous (2000), e.g., and yet what could've been a nostalgic rom-com with heart becomes a mish-mash comedy that oddly injects serious social commentary two-thirds into the story as a catalyst for Alana to attempt to be an adult.
It’s as if the spirit of Cameron Crowe has slipped into Anderson’s soul to produce a sort of companion piece to the former’s “Almost Famous,” in which a peach-fuzzed teenager and a slightly older, more experienced woman create movie magic.
Booksmart (2019)
Directed by Olivia Wilde
influenced by Say Anything... (1989)
Plot Characters Themes
Certain elements are reminiscent of high school movies ranging from “Risky Business” to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” to “The Breakfast Club” to “Say Anything” to “Superbad” to “Easy A,” and “Booksmart” often presents familiar characters and situations: the gigantic blow-out party, the last chance to reveal one’s true feelings to a longtime crush, well-meaning but clueless parents, the misunderstood “weirdo” kid, the big fight between best friends, etc.
We’ve seen many “booksmart” female characters in other teen films, including Say Anything and She’s All That.
The alumni include John Hughes (The Breakfast Club), Amy Heckerling (Clueless), Reginald Hudlin (House Party), Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused), Diablo Cody (Juno), Daniel Waters (Heathers), Sofia Coppola (The Bling Ring), and Cameron Crowe (Say Anything).
Tutored by decades of the genre, we wait for the class goddess to pal up with the slacker (as in “Say Anything,” from 1987), or with the dweeb (as in “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” from 2009).
There was Animal House, Say Anything, Can’t Hardly Wait, and Superbad, just to name some of the most prominent examples in the genre.
The collisions contain a pleasant Local Hero–meets–Harold and Maude vibe, which Crowe has said he was after.
It's as if Crowe wanted to channel Ruth Gordon's elderly free spirit from Harold and Maude.
The Runaways (2010)
Directed by Floria Sigismondi
influenced by Almost Famous (2000)
Characters Plot Themes
Cherie serves as your guide into this raucous other-world, the distaff version of Patrick Fugit in Almost Famous—surprised, sullied, and eventually educated.
Based on Currie's book and told from her point of view, "The Runaways" is "Almost Famous" from the band's perspective, and with Fanning's Currie walking in the platform shoes of that film's groupie, Penny Lane.
Still, more than any movie since "Almost Famous," "The Runaways" captures the intoxicating power of rock-and-roll music to transform young lives — to lift teenage nobodies up into the clouds of stardom (and then, more often than not, dump them back down into the real world they had dreamed of escaping).
Such films as The Doors, Ray, Sid and Nancy, Walk the Line, and What's Love Got to Do With It share the hazy spotlight with films existing on the perimeter, like Almost Famous and last year's Taking Woodstock.
Fanning, whose wide-eyed, sun-kissed innocence recalls Kate Hudson's breakout performance in "Almost Famous," teeters as if on Currie's own vertiginous platform heels between little girl and grown-up, in a role that often demands seeing Currie as both simultaneously.
While Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical love song to the period, Almost Famous, waxes poetic on the music and the muse from a journalist/fan’s perspective, The Runaways plays as fast and loose with the band’s biography as it does the camera.
Crowe said in interviews that his model for this movie was the Scottish director Bill Forsyth’s minor-key 1983 charmer Local Hero; he pays homage by casting Peter Riegert as Benjamin’s editor.
The Boat That Rocked (2009)
Directed by Richard Curtis
influenced by Almost Famous (2000)
Plot Characters
…deejay named Emperor Rosko and played by Hoffman as an exuberant extension of his Lester Bangs in “Almost Famous.’’
Macho games of chicken!) around a baseline narrative—involving young Carl’s (Tom Sturridge) experiences joining the musically obsessed crew—poorly pilfered from Almost Famous .
It's eclectic staff includes celebrated Yank D.J ââ¬ËThe Countââ¬Ë (Philip Seymour Hoffman, seemingly reprising his role as Lester Bangs from "Almost Famous" and enjoying it just as much the second time around), chunky womanizer Dave (Nick Frost), rehabilitated wild-man Gavin (Rhys Ifans), terminal sad-sack Simon (Chris O'Dowd), the dense Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke), New Zealander Angus (Rhys Darby) and young ladies-man Mark (Tom Wisdom).
And the disc jockeys are mostly unremarkable (with Philip Seymour Hoffman basically recycling his Lester Bangs act from “Almost Famous”).
His naïve Carl, peeking forward to manhood like Almost Famouss William Miller (Patrick Fugit), forms the dramatic backbone of the story.
Mr. Hoffman’s is a slovenly, less accomplished version of the Lester Bangs of “Almost Famous,” Mr. Ifans’s the slick, mysterious womanizer and Mr. Branagh’s the profoundly cranky government employee.
Sing Street (2016)
Directed by John Carney
influenced by Almost Famous (2000), Say Anything... (1989)
Plot Characters Themes
Sing Street flaunts its influences rather proudly: There’s a touch of Rushmore, a sprinkle of Freaks and Geeks, a large dose of Almost Famous, and, inevitably, a bit of The Commitments, Alan Parker’s 1991 film about another budding Irish band.
The character of Brendan functions much as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lester Bangs did in Almost Famous; he provides mottos (“Rock and roll is a risk”), keen insights (which Conor then recites verbatim to others), and education (he hands him key albums and insists, “This is school.”).
Con claras referencias a “Almost Famous”, “Say Anything”, y a las mencionadas “Once” y “Begin Again” (incluso a “Back to the Future”), “Sing Street” nos demuestra por qué la música es perfecta para expresar frustraciones y esperanzas.
He's that Phillip Seymour Hoffman from Almost Famous kind of guy that just never left home.
A beautiful amalgam of “ Almost Famous ,” and “ Say Anything ,” with a hint of “ Once ,” John Carney is again at his top conveying a musical drama centered on more impoverished characters.
The film is imbued with music philosophy, like a Nick Hornby book or Cameron Crowe movie circa Almost Famous, or rather like a John Carney movie.
When Daniel tells Jason to win Ellie’s heart and to “Do it like the movies… like Jerry Maguire,” one wishes Gormican would have restrained himself from inserting corny proclamations of love at the end that do recall the eye-rolling “You had me at hello” moment from Cameron Crowe’s comedy classic.
In its last 20 minutes, "That Awkward Moment" falls off a bit by doing two things romantic comedies often do, no matter how much we might wish they wouldn't: (1) There are unnecessary complications, with people misbehaving in unexpected ways, just to stretch out the action; and (2) We get one of those public confessions of love, of a kind that no one has done well since " Jerry Maguire ."
So, although writer/director Tom Gormican wants his movie to hearken back to a series of films he has an affinity for (he calls out Jerry Maguire by name), he's aware that the genre has evolved to where copious amounts of profanity and frank sexual talk are expected.
Three male friends make a pact to stay single and play the field in That Awkward Moment, a first-time feature from Tom Gormican that tries to mix Hangover raunch with a heartfelt Jerry Maguire-style romance, in what might be more aptly titled Those Awkward 94 Minutes.
Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe�s pretty remake of Alejandro Amenabar�s 1997 Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) changes so little that one could almost think his true inspiration was Gus Van Sant�s version of Psycho, which was nearly identical to Hitchcock�s.
But he does have one explosive scene, vaguely reminiscent of his character Blake, the intimidating sales manager in the classic "Glengarry Glen Ross" from 1992.
For me, it is a combination of “The Village” and Cameron Crowe’s “Vanilla Sky” as the revelations characters make here are never the least bit surprising, and the line between what’s real and what is not is stunningly lackluster.
Are they touring Westworld or the alternate reality of “Vanilla Sky”?
É como em “Matrix“, “Vanilla Sky” ou mais recentemente em “WandaVision”: a perfeição excessiva desperta a desconfiança.
Recently, after watching Jerry Maguire for the first time in years, I complained that they didn’t make middlebrow films like that anymore—that is, smart and satisfying, if somewhat facile, films for grownups.
…or Jerry Maguire in the acting world…
It’s certainly reminiscent of Cuba Gooding and Tom Cruise’s relationship in “Jerry Maguire.”
If Zach Braff’s “Garden State” no longer feels like the generational alarm clock it did in 2004, that’s because “Elizabethtown” and “The Last Kiss” (also with Braff) made it easier to hit snooze on poor-me whines of twentysomething males in quarter-life crises.
The plot might remind viewers of last year's indie hit "Garden State," but Crowe is aiming at a mainstream audience, which makes his challenge that much greater.
Reviews of Elizabethtown will begin in one of two ways: The reviewer will compare Cameron Crowe's latest to the bizarrely similar Garden State, or she'll quip on the opening voiceover by Orlando Bloom, a rumination on the difference between "failure" and a "fiasco."
If it sounds familiar, it should: Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown is, for all intents and purposes, Garden State 2. But where the delightful Garden State showed that its auteur, Zach Braff, is a disciple of pillowy pop-music patchworks like Say Anything and Jerry Maguire, Crowe's cloying Elizabethtown little more than a phoned-in date movie makes it clear the pupil has outshone his professor.
No matter how you look at it, the story line is a Hollywoodized rip-off of Zach Braff's vastly superior Garden State.
The theme of “Camelot” (the original score with Richard Burton and Julie Andrews is heard) echoes throughout the film as Jackie conducts an exclusive interview with a journalist (played by Billy Crudup of “Almost Famous”).
But at the risk of seeming ungrateful, the way this mashup of Love Story and Jerry Maguire brags about its characters' fantastic sex life is something of a turnoff.
And that's frankly a pity, because there's something sincere and plainspoken at the heart of the film, and you can sense it shooting for the same kind of modern-Zen territory as "Jerry Maguire."
While he's working the foyer - in scenes that recall the real 1996's best film, Jerry Maguire - she crosses the road to a meeting of Parkinson's sufferers.
Tonally, Love and Other Drugs, based on Jamie Reidy’s memoir “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman,” strikingly resembles Jerry Maguire.
There was great joy in Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs in “Almost Famous” craving for the raw power of the Velvet Underground: “Gimme some ‘White Light/White Heat!’”
Reminiscent of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous , the strength behind Blinded by the Light is the music – in this case, it’s ‘The Boss’ leading the way.