Almost+Famous



[|Ebert's review of Almost Famous]

Ebert is my favorite critic - he selected Almost Famous as his favorite movie of the year in 2000 - the link is to his initial review of the film. The second sentence of the review is, "I was almost hugging myself while I watched it." I love that line. He also compared it to Huck Finn, which I thought was pretty interesting.

[|IMDB Trivia Section for Almost Famous]

The above is the trivia section for the movie from Internet Movie Database - recommend checking that section out for most movies we watch (though I would counsel waiting until after we get done watching it). They usually have some pretty interesting tidbits (word of the day? maybe?) about each film.

[|Cameron Crowe's Rolling Stone articles]

[|Crowe's Wikipedia entry]

The film's is based in part on Cameron Crowe's, the film's director, experience as a teenage critic for Rolling Stone. The above is a link to some of his articles, followed by a link to his Wikipedia entry - it contains some biographical information about him and its connection to the film.

[|La Blogotheque]

The above is a link to one of my favorite music websites on the interwebs - it is a collection of intimate performances recorded by French director Vincent Moon - that particular link takes you to the version in English of the Take Away Show series. The ones we watch in class are Arcade Fire, Yeasayer, Bon Iver, and Phoenix.

Class Notes 12/6 (recorded by Billy King):

talked about the Bible Inspector Gadget about almost famous Discussed questions of almost Famous. Due 12-7-10 broke up into groups to talk about what we think the theme of Almost Famous is “Inverted”- maybe word of day? Talked about themes as class- sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll (stuck tongue out) friends, honesty, hope, love, trust, peer pressure, reality/escape, coming of age, drugs are good (penicillin + such) are people good? Watched Almost Famous clips Saw Pink Floyd symbol on windshield Bus scene with Tiny Dancer- Mr. Donnelly’s favorite part Watched airplane scene

Class notes 12/7 (recorded by Rose Gray):

· First we got our movie essays back. · We started discussing Almost Famous · The “Ooh scene was cut from original version” · Jeff is meant to be a jerk · Russell is a jerk but people like him · Don't show movies directed by women · “This class [feel the need to interpolate that I left open the possibility of it being good or bad - said "This will be good or this class .."] sucks based on you guys, if I just stand up here and talk and you just stare at your screen its going to suck” · “People use the truth to be a jerk” · Started watching clips o Scene when Penny is walking with William and she is telling him everything she’s done o Music clips § Arcade Fire- Neon Bible/Wake Up- A Take Away Show § Brooklyn Band on the Metro Yeasayer 2080 Tightrophe- A Take Away Show § Yeasayer- Yeah Yeah

Q: What are some things you liked/disliked about the movie

Like Dislike
 * Brianna: Characters || Tate: lead singer got angry ||
 * Billy: the beginning bathroom scene || Maggie: Ending scene wasn't realistic ||
 * Abby: Tiny Dancer scene || Erin: lead singer is annoying ||
 * Bruno: Real Topeka people || Mike: Penny Lane doesn't care for herself and changes her lifestyle too much and isn’t realistic ||
 * Connor: Story || People using people ||
 * Erin: The guy that never talks says he’s gay and the plane lands || Billy: trying to figure out what Penny’s name is there were 4 different times where it sounds like she’s saying her name. ||
 * Tom: the Music ||  ||
 * John: Radio interview scene ||  ||