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

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.

We have now officially punctured the flimsy battlements of rational thought and are now skipping willy-nilly through the wilderness of insanity.

(Nothing wrong with that. It's just... well... English Kate should be able to explain more the whole connection between slashfic and that peculiar sort of fanhood that, well, uh, never mind.)

Also, no one ever talks about Toni Collette's fantastic Liza-in-Cabaret-as-Angie-Bowie tour de force.

DUDE! I keep on forgetting to give Toni Collette as not-Angie the props it deserves! She's one of the major reasons why I like that film as much as I do. She's, like, totally on fire. Burning the celluloid down.

I also liked Bale's "MOM! DAD! That's MEE!" yelp.

Awwwww, one of the scenes that makes you like Arthur more and more as the movie progresses.

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.)

Heh. Why am I not surprised that you would easily be able to name that song, Ned? Anyway, I had no idea that was the (a.) artist behind the song and (b.) the name of the song itself. Wow. That was a good approximation of soulless '80s AOR, wasn't it? Very convincing.

But you are good and not evil, so the other Robinsons referred to must be the evil ones.

David Bowie >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the Black Crowes

(i.e. I agree with Ferlin Huxley et. al.)

One and a half listenable songs ('Queen Bitch' and the duet w/ Mick Jagger) - but he was cool in Labyrinth.

Yet you're completely fine with the Black Crowes? FETCH HITHER A STRAIGHT-JACKET!

KATE DUDSON. For starters.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, and if you ask me, he overplayed his hand in that role.

glam is classic. david bowie is classic. iggy pop is classic. "citizen kane" is classic. despite all these things, "velvet goldmine" is a dud.

People who hate it seem to be responding to the director (hey, I can't stand any of Crowe's other movies) or the culture's response or even just looking for something 180 degrees from what Crowe wanted to show.

Holy shit! I need to hear that song again to hear this for myself. Uh, but first, where did I put my VG soundtrack? *laughs* Oh wait, I think I know where it is. Anyway, this thread could very well cause me to dig up my VG soundtrack and stop (temporarily) with the classic New Wave stuff I'm massively into right now. OH! And it's pretty cool seeing most of Radiohead SUCCESSFULLY do glam; if I had been a rational-thinking individual, this should've given me an impetus to check out the band's musical output. But, hey, "Creep" was one of my favorite songs of the year it came out in and that wasn't enough to... uh, excuse me, I think I'm going to kick my own ass now. ;)

Really, though, I think I was most intrigued by the fact that the movie afforded me the first chance I'd ever had to hear the original Cockney Rebel version of "(Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile". The only version I'd heard of that song was the Duran cover and these were still pre-file sharing days for me, so when I heard the original in the closing credits for the very first time, my heart skipped multiple beats and I almost sucked the air out of the auditorium. Verdict at the time, though, was that I was kinda disappointed by how mellow it was, though now I'm totally equally in love with both versions.

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

this actually gets more inexplicable by the scene