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

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.

Uh, hell yeah.

OTM. The plot isn't what the movie is about. The movie is about glitter, debauchery and flash.

Then again there's Kozelek.

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.