This was easily one of the best movies of 2000 and it was almost criminally ignored by the general public. I'm not sure how but DreamWorks really dropped the ball on the marketing of this movie. It's sweet, funny and extremely well written. Performances are solid across the board with particularly brilliant work by Frances McDormand and Billy Crudup. Newcomer Patrick Fugit is something of a revelation who will hopefully get the opportunity to do a lot more movies.
Disc: 6/10
As good as the movie is, the disc is a bit of a let down. Included is a well done making of documentary, a music video for Stillwater's "Fever Dog," the theatrical trailer, cast and crew bios, and most interestingly a sampling of Cameron Crowe's articles for Rolling Stone that served as the basis for the movie's story. The disc contains his cover stories on legendary bands like the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and Fleetwood Mac as well as solo artists like Neil Young, Peter Frampton, Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell. Knowing what a good screenwriter Crowe is it shouldn't come as a surprise that the articles are extremely well written unless you consider that he started writing them at fifteen.
The material on the disc is definitely well prepared. The making of video includes a lot of photos of Crowe during the time in his life the movie is set. It also includes some footage of the legendary rock critic Lester Bangs who was something of a mentor to Crowe. It helps show just how good Hoffman's performance was.
The main problem with the disc though is what isn't included. There is no director's commentary which seems really sad considering Crowe's personal attachment to the project. The disc also fails to include the reported forty minutes of footage cut by DreamWorks to shorten the film for release. It would have been really nice to see Crowe's original cut.
It's missing a few things but this is still a great movie with some decent supplementary material. It's definitely worth picking up.
- John Shea
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