elizabethtown Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Sometimes navel gazing is a good thing, if an artist looks truly and honestly inside him or herself for material. If they're truly gifted, and can tap into something universal or human, the result can be a masterwork. But if the artist finds himself too far removed from everyday life, or if their visions and ideas are too close to home to find a logical shape, the result can be something of a mess. Navel-gazing dramas are a dime a dozen, but it takes a special talent to try it with comedy. Judd Apatow's Funny People was the #1 movie in a very slow week, which shows that audiences were probably about as fond of it as critics were. I would bet the main complaint across the board was the same: it's too long. Either way, there's usually something interesting about these projects.

1. Elizabethtown (2005)
Though Apatow is catching up, Cameron Crowe is the #1 comedy navelgazer in the history of cinema. This rambling, sprawling thing was supposed to be a cute romantic comedy about a depressed schlub whose life is turned around by a cute airline stewardess. Unfortunately, too many useless subplots about funerals and forgotten bands get in the way, in addition to the fact that the male character is overwritten and underplayed by Orlando Bloom, and the female character is underwritten and overplayed by Kirsten Dunst. The whole thing culminates in a weird musical, mix-tape road trip odyssey that must have lit Crowe's fire, but didn't spark for anyone else.

This just in: Zack Snyder's use of Leonard Cohen's Hallejuah made moviegoers around the world forget they were watching Dan and Laurie get it on. I don't know where their minds were yanked to, but everyone found it distracting.

I was one of the few who didn't. In fact, I would say John Cale's version in Shrek was more distracting, considering the sexual themes of the song and the movie it was playing in. Then again, Shrek was full of adult moments, and Hallejuah was probably just another thing for the parents to enjoy.

But as always, we like to take such mildly combative subjects and put them up for discussion here. Surely there's a ton of moments in movie music history that yanked you right out of the film and left you giggling, wincing, or rolling your eyes.

On the goofy end of the scale, I would offer Top Gun, with Kenny Loggins' Playing with the Boys as a bunch of shirtless hunks play volleyball, or any of the power ballads in Rocky IV. (Still, freedom was against the ropes in that movie. Maybe I'm being too harsh.)

On the "ok, but too obvious" scale is the use of U2's Pride (In the Name of Love) in Elizabethtown. Normally, Cameron Crowe's music is impeccable, but playing it while Orlando Bloom is standing outside of where Martin Luther King was assassinated? Yeah. Not good. There's tons of moments like these. Let's write the definitive list here.

(And in order to give credit where it's due -- this idea was partly inspired by a discussion I had on the /filmcast last week ... which was partly inspired by our Good Music from Mediocre Movies debate here on Cinematical. It's like a sweater that keeps on knitting and knitting.)

So we've all heard of the Hooker with a Heart of Gold, right? Well step aside Ms. Thang, because there's a new clichéd sheriff in town, and this time she's equal parts cute, cuddly and quirky. Before I get started, I just want to make sure you know I think Natalie Portman, Kirsten Dunst, and Penelope Cruz are wonderfully talented actresses. Unfortunately, I also happen to think these gals have perpetuated one of the most cloying and sickeningly adorable characters to ever grace the screen: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (it's a mouthful, but bear with me...).

Maybe the easiest way to define an MPDG is to leave it to the originator of the term, Nathan Rabin, who first used it when reviewing Elizabethtown. According to Rabin, the MPG is "that bubbly, shallow, cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." Or maybe an easier definition is pretty much any girl in a Cameron Crowe film ... or Natalie "My hair's blowin' in the wind" Portman in Garden State, who seems to be everyone's pick for the most annoying MPG in cinematic history.

So what makes this character different from other free-spirited, whimsical ladies like Susan Vance in Bringing up Baby or Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's? Well, there is a very small difference, and it's that the MPG has no function other than to support our sulky fellow as he makes sense of his suspended adolescence or commitment issues. The MPG in the end isn't even a fully realized character; she has no storyline or purpose other than to serve as a romantic vision for our mopey hero -- maybe it's a small distinction, but hey, the devil is in the details.

Cont'd...

First off, it pains me that I cannot bring to you the 18 or so stills from The Dark Knight that hit the net overnight. Pains me! While you can still find them on the smaller movie blog ... s, Warner Bros. has requested that the pics come down from larger sites. And since I'm going on vacation in 24 hours (coupled with the fact that it's Friday), I don't feel like dealing with any lawyers at the moment. But they're around ... you just gotta look.

That being said, my impending two-week voyage overseas has got me thinking a lot about road trip movies lately. Plus, it's summertime, and if you haven't taken in a screening of National Lampoon's Vacation at some point within the last two months, then you should be ashamed of yourself. So last night, as I was casing my DVD collection for something to take on the trip with me, I came across Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown. I have no problem saying how much of a Crowe fan I am -- the guy has a way of turning me to mush with his dialogue, and I've openly wept on occasions (the scene in Almost Famous when William bursts out of the restaurant in search of Penny Lane, while Elton John tells us "The New York Times said God was dead," is one example).

So why Elizabethtown? Well, this was a strange film for me because, when I first saw it, I was at a preview screening with my father. This was the first and only preview screening I've ever attended with my dad (who's love for movies turned me on to writing about them in the first place), and when we walked out of the theater, I was convinced Elizabethtown was my favorite film of the year. I've since watched the film three more times, with each viewing depressing me more and more. The problem with Elizabethtown (a road movie about a guy coming to terms with his father's passing) is that, as with most Crowe films, it's based on his own experiences. Thus, him being too close to the subject matter caused Crowe to make a "Cameron Crowe Movie," instead of another enjoyable, original piece of work. So what we get in Elizabethtown are pieces of Maguire and Famous smashed together, with the shell of a real-life story somehow trying to pop out from time to time.

Why did I like it so much after that first screening? I've come to the realization that it wasn't so much the movie as it was experiencing it with my father. Knowing that some day he'll pass on, and I'll most likely be on the road somewhere attempting to come to terms with our own relationship. Which brings me to this question for you: Have you ever let a movie experience taint your feelings on the movie itself?

Kirsten Dunst says her role in Cameron Crowe's next film is the one of the best parts she's ever read. She stars opposite Orlando Bloom in Elizabethtown, the story of a flight attendant (Dunst) who meets a man (Bloom) on his way home to Kentucky, the results of which are romantically comedic, or comedically romantic. It's not always easy to tell with Crowe.