Taking Sides: "Velvet Goldmine" versus "Almost Famous"

SO WRONG

velvet goldmine is bad but uh "rich" and it's not boring until the last 70 or 80 minutes.

On an episode of Jon Favreau's Dinner For Five (featuring the cast of Elf), the Sarah Polley thing is brought up. (Will Ferrell calls Zooey D. "Scraps" because all her plum film parts came as a result of the first choice(s) turning them down.) Favreau goes on a leeeetle too long about how Polley would've been great as the skanky slut groupie, & almost goes so far as to say something seriously insulting & pervy about SP along the lines of, "yeah, Polley's got that skeezy around-the-block nice-&-fucked way about her; my TV eye's tuned into that shit, no doubt about it." (Maybe I'm reading a little into that exchange, tho.) (Just maybe.) Favreau also talked about turfing his audition for the Lester Bangs part, & how CC humored him as he FUBAR'd take after take after take.

Anyway, I hated VG when I saw it, & I liked AF when I saw it, but my opinion of the former's gone up as my opinion for the latter has gone subterranean. So, when in doubt, I go w/ the flick that shows some dick.

You know, it's weird , but I don't find anyone in Velvet Goldmine attractive. Still, it's the greatest film ever made, of course.

Also, no one ever talks about Toni Collette's fantastic Liza-in-Cabaret-as-Angie-Bowie tour de force. Was nice to know that Lindsey Kemp is still alive, too.

Yeah, Collette does the best job in the film on the acting front hands down. The conscious use of varying accents is handled quite well. And I tripped out on Kemp as well!

That's a great rule of thumb.

that, and the little boy jack fairy rubbing the blood over his lips to make lipstick after getting beat up!

always makes me laugh.

altho almost famous is useful, since yelling "c'mon Stillwater, play louder" at the band on stage REALLLLLY pisses them off! :D

for those who can't recall, here's fairuza herself, pictured here with a lucky fan:

http://img245.echo.cx/img245/8521/fairuzabalk26rp.th.jpg

Dunno.

Billy Crudup w/ bad facial hair, what's the point of THAT? F Balk into pillar is the highlight.

Almost Famous was a bit "meh". I'm not interested in actual groupies, only conceptual groupiedom. Plus, the journalist irritated me a lot more than Christian Bale blokey.

But what I like best are the opening credits to Velvet Goldmine.

Velvet Goldmine for blount's reasons and for the soundtrack. I used to have a VG poster on my wall in college.

xpost the opening sequence of VG is great! The kids in platforms running to get tickets!

I don't know if I'd call the theory of Velvet Goldmine the best film ever, but it's certainly an era rife with the potential for great storytelling. I heartily agree that its execution places it firmly in the running for worst film ever.

Still, Velvet Goldmine doesn't give me the fucking shivers of abject loathing that Almost Famous (which I'd place alongside The Big Chill and The Committments in the pre-packaged nostaliga department). Ugh.

Moreover, with the celestial exception of the afore-mentioned This Is Spinal Tap (admittedly a parody and thus excluded from the running), I cannot think of a film about fictional bands that doesn't fail miserably.

Ewan Mac is the only recent trou-dropping actor who had something worth showing.

Among the many annoying things in AF- "I am a golden god!"

I am still annoyed a full version of the fake 80s corp rock song by Shudder to Think, "People Rocking People," has not surfaced. (You can hear it playing at a couple of points in the 1984 sequences, as in the start of the bar scene.)

I love the short scene in VG where the girls are playing with their Brian and Kurt dolls.

Toni Collette's accent work, weaving between affected English to New Yawkish is yet another piece of evidence in my case for the absolute dominance of Australians when it comes to English language accents.

It's nice as both Haynes' tribute to himself and as an element in the film in general -- it works regardless of whether you know Superstar or not.

OTM -- I couldn't really tell you what VG was "about." Then again, I can't even remotely recall what The Big Sleep is about, either, and I've seen it about 15 times. It totally doesn't matter.

...but, like it's sibling This is Spinal Tap...it's a parody.

i'm bewildered by the anti-grandmother stance of blount's first post

ned's first post on this was so right, no more needs to be said.

almost famous is the big chill of my generation (people who were teens in the first half of the 70s)

in other words -- sentimental and mawkish exercise in nostalgia. but hey, i liked it so shoot me now.

i liked it

almost famous' only saving grace is that it introduced me to Zooey Deschanel.

actually, it might have been Mumford that did that (underrated flick btw) but I think AF is where I fell in love.

The rest of it is a steaming pile though.

which is kinda funny cause Mumford and the Big Chill both written & directed by Kasdan

oh lol here is the sister randomly in the same airport ^_^

hahaha

Almost Famous had some great moments and solid acting (especially on the part of Crudup) but I remember being disappointed that it had such a cliche Hollywood ending (Everyone is saved and it all works out thanks to the power of Rock 'n' Roll).

Its mistakes aside, it is miles better than Velvet Goldmine. As much as I like Bowie, Roxy, etc more than early 1970s blues rock VG is the crappier film. The Bowie character is unlikeable, the Iggy Pop character somewhat interesting (but he sadly gets less time than Bowie) and the Bale character is left to be too mysterious for his own good.

Also, it's incredibly pretentious (The Oscar Wilde connection/Gay ring scenes FTL) and, ironically, manages to outdo Cameron Crowe in the hero worship department. As much as Crowe gets hammered for being a wistful and self-congratulating baby boomer he at least showed some distance and had some criticism for certain parts of the "rock and roll life" (though he sort of undoes all the criticism with the aforementioned Hollywood happy ending). Haynes' movie just reminded me why I couldn't stand more than fifteen minutes of I'm Not There: it's flat-out idolatrous towards its subject matter, and ends up providing little insight because of it.

I'd think you'd have to be of the mindset that the VG-inspiring period, culture and archetypes are infinitely more interesting than the ones found in Almost Famous to excuse all the nostalgia and bedroom-poster worship that goes on in VG and then have all sorts of unbalanced hate for AF for going on a nostalgia trip.

The 'surprise' end of VG, that the loungey singer right at the start of the film was the 'missing' whassisname, um, I thought it so obvious that it was a given for the audience...

Almost Famous is amazing! I thought it would inspire me to write a great article, but instead it inspired me to quit my job!

I don't know what I would think of it had i not related to the film so well...I'm very similar to Fugit's character (granted, I have yet to write for Rolling Stone or Creem).

John Simon articulated my own feelings about Almost Famous better than I did earlier regarding the cop-out tone of the movie:

"William's big dilemma is whether to tell the truth about the tour and alienate the band, or write a puff piece, and have Rolling Stone reject it. The youth opts for the former, but is forgiven by the band, whose reputation soars because of the article; Crowe makes the opposite choice with his movie and, whatever success it may reap, loses me."

"Some films are just good enough for you to have wished them a bit better. They are a little too sentimental, soft, and mildly dishonest to be much more than a slightly melancholy missed opportunity."

holy shit almost famous is the probably the worst movie i've ever seen in my life ― J0rdan S.

vs.

Almost Famous is amazing! I thought it would inspire me to write a great article, but instead it inspired me to quit my job! ― Tape Store

I just watched this last night, so I searched to see how ILX viewed it.

If I had taken this movie at all seriously, as a heartfelt statement about youth and coming of age, or as an homage to an era of music I felt deeply about, or as an ode to the value of music journalism, I probably would have been as disgusted as Jordan. I suppose, if I were young enough, there's an outside chance I might have been as inspired as Tape Store. As it was, I merely enjoyed it because it was affectionate and shallow and cartoony and it made me laugh out loud five or six times. It entertained me for two hours and I'll have forgotten all about it in two weeks.

PSH as Lester Bangs was pretty awesome
Side-stepping the statutory rape groupie thing much less so

Randomly started watching clips the other night because of youtube recommendations - as not-particularly-good as the movie is, I'd totally watch a movie about Stillwater 2017, playing the Three Dog Night town arts festival circuit

I hated teh Veklvet Goldmine treatment of Iggy as someone with no rhythm. Preferred Almost Famous .

Velvet Goldmine.

I kinda love Velvet Goldmine, and as messy as it is I think it's the key to understanding Todd Haynes. He's made better films, but I think they become even better by watching Velvet Goldmine a couple of times and thinking about it.

20 years! Feels like 10

https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/almost-famous-20th-anniversary-reunion-1017345/

I was watching Gone Girl two nights ago, which is the only time I've seen Patrick Fugit (William) since.

His career really didn't take off. I forgot he was in Spun. Also really creepy in Queen of Earth.

finally saw the “Untitled” cut aka Bootleg version

if you hate the movie you’ll still hate it obviously but imo it’s better than the theatrical cut, has a lot more moments btw characters, it benefits from being a bit slower paced

there is an extra scene where Stillwater do an on-air radio interview with Kyle Gass playing a stoned radio dj that is hilarious & perfect
(imo you could put it in the dictionary under “Album Oriented Rock radio station”)

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/stillwater-almost-famous-cover-story-1165517/

William Miller's Stillwater story

Velvet Goldmine coming to Criterion!

https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/comments/veyf4w/so_i_was_at_the_premiere_of_the_new_restoration/

LOOOONG overdue, just waiting on whenever the formal announcment is.