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Exclusive: Cameron Crowe has signed with CAA. The Oscar, BAFTA and Grammy winner’s career features some of the most iconic movie titles of the past five decades, dating back to his debut feature film screenwriting effort Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Starring Sean Penn, it was based on a book Crowe wrote after spending a year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School in San Diego.

Crowe would go on to direct such classics as Say Anything, Singles and Jerry Maguire. The latter, starring Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger, was nominated for five Academy Awards including Original Screenplay and Best Picture. Crowe’s screenplay received the Pen Literary Award and a DGA nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film.

The film that would ultimately land him his first Oscar was the 1996 autobiographical pic Almost Famous, starring Kate Hudson and Billy Crudup and based on Crowe’s experiences...

“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is a tour de force. The concert film, produced by Tay’s own team, bypassed major distributors in favor of AMC, (legally) charged whatever Swift wanted for tickets ($19.89), and put a ton of money in the singer’s pocket: Swift negotiated a 57 percent cut of the revenue that would normally go to a distributor.

With roughly $125 million in worldwide box office after opening weekend, should traditional film distributors be worried about going the way of Scooter Braun? Chill; there are not many who “have the appeal that [Swift] has,” Richard Abramowitz, a veteran of the event-cinema space with his indie distributor Abramorama, told IndieWire.

As unique as Swift’s example may seem, it’s happened before and it’s likely to happen again. Abramowitz pointed to a release he did for the 2011 documentary “Pearl Jam Twenty.” Abramorama “did not spend a penny” in advertising, he said,...

Cameron Crowe, the writer and director of “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous,” has signed with UTA.

The Oscar winner was previously at CAA. UTA will work with Crowe’s longtime manager, Irving Azoff, to represent Crowe in all areas, including film, television and other media.

Crowe won an Academy Award for writing the script for “Almost Famous,” his semi-autobiographical look at the rock scene of the 1970s. He earned Oscar nominations for penning the script for and producing “Jerry Maguire,” the story of a sports agent who rediscovers his moral compass. The movie, which starred Tom Cruise, remains Crowe’s biggest commercial success. Other notable Crowe favorites include “Vanilla Sky,” “Singles,” “Elizabethtown” and “Say Anything.” Crowe got his start as a journalist for Rolling Stone, an experience that was dramatized in “Almost Famous.” He wrote both the book and the screenplay to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

Crowe scored a...

Cameron Crowe, the director behind films like “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous,” has signed with UTA.

UTA will work alongside Crowe’s longtime manager, Irving Azoff, to represent the director in all areas, including film and television.

Crowe most recently produced the documentary “David Crosby: Remember My Name” and wrote “Almost Famous: The Musical,” which premiered at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in 2019 and is expected to transfer to Broadway.

Crowe’s most recent work as a director was his 2016 Showtime series “Roadies,” which he wrote, directed and executive produced. He also directed the 2015 film “Aloha.” Crowe won an Oscar for the screenplay for “Almost Famous” and was nominated for two additional Oscars for “Jerry Maguire” with Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, Regina King and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Some of his other directing credits include “Vanilla Sky,” “Singles,” “Elizabethtown” and “We Bought a Zoo,” and he also wrote the screenplays...

Abramorama, a New York-based independent distribution company, has acquired worldwide rights to “Looking for a Lady With Fangs and a Moustache.”

Directed by Khyentse Norbu, the film will debut on April 8 with a virtual live premiere hosted by the Rubin Museum of Art in NYC. “Looking for a Lady With Fangs and a Moustache” will also be available on Abramorama’s digital platform. Following the screening, Norbu is participating in a conversation moderated by Dr. Richard J. Davidson.

It tells the story of Tenzin, a modern Tibetan entrepreneur, utterly skeptical of ancient, mystical beliefs, who is suddenly haunted by frightening dreams and hallucinations. A sage tells him those are omens for his imminent death. With seven days to save his life, Tenzin embarks on an unconventional and sacred journey into feminine energy.

“I hope this film will transport audiences to a profound, mystical, and yet very real and accessible dimension...

“I wanted the film to provide kind of a vicarious experience,” says Chris Perkel, director and producer of the documentary “Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert,” confirming that there’s absolutely nothing coincidental about the film’s debut today coinciding with what would have been day one of Coachella 2020.

“We obviously debated what to do with the release of the film once the festival was rescheduled for October,” he says, but ultimately YouTube Originals decided to only move the release date back a week and a half, from March 31 to April 10, with the idea that the doc could serve as a salve on a weekend when passholders may be particularly nursing the postponement blues. “With all of us staying indoors, and under a lot of stress, we thought that might be more valuable than ever,” Perkel says.

It’s technically 19 years in the desert outside of Palm Springs, as longtime devotees may recall.

In today’s film news roundup, Pearl Jam teams with Abramorama, “Bloodshot” get an Immersive Cinema Experience release, Philip Kaufman is honored, the Doc10 Festival unveils its slate and “Testament” gets rolling.

Release Dates

Pearl Jam and Abramorama have scheduled the “Gigaton Listening Experience” for March 25 in more than 200 Dolby Atmos-equipped theaters in 20 countries.

The immersive event takes place two days before the release of Pearl Jam’s album “Gigaton.” It includes a playback of the entire album in Dolby Atmos with visuals curated and created by Evolve, the filmmaker and artist behind the music video for the first single “Dance of the Clairvoyants.”

This marks Pearl Jam’s fourth theatrical collaboration with Abramorama following 2007’s “Imagine in Cornice,” directed by Danny Clinch; 2011’s “Pearl Jam Twenty,” directed by Cameron Crowe; and 2017’s “Let’s Play Two,” also helmed by Clinch.

Abramorama’s Evan Saxon and Richard Abramowitz said in a statement,...

Cameron Crowe has signed on to produce BMG’s documentary about David Crosby, the mustachioed one-third of the great Crosby Stills & Nash classic rock trio. The film will be directed by A.J. Eaton.

“It’s just such a compelling story,” said Crowe. “David Crosby has been near the forefront of music and social change for the last four decades. Now 76, he’s forging a new path by seeking out younger musicians and trying to make a mark in a world now so different from the generation he came to define in the ’60s.”

Crowe said the untitled doc will be “a raw and moving portrait, rough edges and all,” and that Eaton (pictured, with Crosby and Crowe) has been “filming Croz for the last several years.”

The Crosby film will be produced by Michele Farinola for Pch Films and Greg Mariotti for Vinyl Films, in addition to Crowe. Executive producers...

BMG announced today that Oscar-winning filmmaker Cameron Crowe, best known for rock-themed films such as “Singles” and “Almost Famous,” has signed a deal with the company to produce a documentary on the life of rock icon David Crosby. It is the first documentary about the veteran rocker — a founding member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — to be fully authorized by the artist. BMG is both financier and executive producer of the film, with all rights available worldwide.

The still-untitled film is helmed by first time feature-doc director A.J. Eaton (pictured above with Crosby, center, and Crowe, right), who has been following the singer for several years. In addition to producing the documentary, Crowe has conducted multiple interviews with Crosby. Crowe previously wrote and directed the musical documentaries “Pearl Jam Twenty (PJ20)” and “The Union,” on the 2011 collaboration between Elton John and Leon Russell.

“It’s just such a compelling story.

The dream of a national theatrical release still burns bright for most feature documentary filmmakers, but the reality is that traditional releases with week-long runs across the country have gotten much harder. Exhibitors complain that too many movies are opening, while viewers are increasingly watching documentaries at home via Netflix, PBS, HBO, iTunes or Amazon.

Read More: Cannes Addresses Netflix Controversy By Forcing Competition Films to Receive Theatrical Distribution In France

Knowing how challenging theatrical has gotten, it’s exciting to discover an innovative alternative model for releasing documentaries, which I call “Hybrid Theatrical Distribution.” It combines full runs in selected cities where seven-day engagements are viable and single special event screenings in many other cities.

Richard Abramowitz, one of the earliest and most successful pioneers of this approach, has been utilizing a hybrid approach to achieve remarkable results, most recently with “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Year.

Wc

Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Clearly, Johnny Depp, Kevin James, Adam Sandler, Liam Neeson, Neill Blomkamp and the Wachowskis were not scholars of Einstein.

Once more that band of cinematic rascals is part of an offensive list of the year’s worst film talents. Let’s be honest, most of them are veterans of the list by now, but thanks to the human centipede of talent agents and casting directors that seem to completely ignore recent track records and overall ability, they still get work.

They will continue to get work. They will continue to be horrendous. And that’s why we can’t have nice things.

All in all, 2015 has actually been a fairly poor year for film. It feels like the nervous deep breath before the excitement of 2016’s blockbuster packed slate,...

Showtime has picked up a one-hour pilot for Roadies, a new comedy written and directed by Cameron Crowe that will follow the day-to-day life of the road crew for a successful touring rock band. The network describes the show as an examination of the "reckless, romantic, funny and often poignant lives" of the people who work diligently behind the scenes.

 The 20 Best TV Moments of 2013

The director, who fictionalized his experiences as a reporter for Rolling Stone in the 2000 movie Almost Famous and who captured the Seattle grunge scene in the 1992 movie Singles,...

Today, Showtime confirmed that it had given a pilot order to Roadies, a rock comedy series from Jerry Maguire filmmaker Cameron Crowe, My So-Called Life creator Winnie Holzman and Star Trek director J.J. Abrams. Crowe, whose experiences working as a music journalist for Rolling Stone and directing The Union and Pearl Jam Twenty partially inspired the show, will both script and direct the pilot.

The series, which takes place during a successful rock tour, will focus on “the reckless, romantic, funny and often poignant lives of a committed group of characters who live for music and the de facto family they’ve formed along the way.” It will mark a return to musical territory for Crowe, whose semi-autobiographical feature Almost Famous dealt with similar material (and won him a Best Original Screenplay Oscar).

Crowe said of the show’s premise:

“We’re fans of crews, those workers up on the rigging towers,...

With such feel-good dramas as Say Anything…, Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Elizabethtown and We Bought A Zoo on his resume, Cameron Crowe has carved out a pretty well-defined niche for himself in cinema. Now, however, it appears that the director, whose still-untitled romantic comedy with Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper is slated for release this December, is about to make the leap to the small screen. Today, we’re hearing that Crowe is collaborating with premium cable network Showtime to develop a series called Roadies.

The ensemble comedy series, to be set during a U.S. rock tour, is being produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot. If the series works out, Crowe will direct the pilot later this year. The helmer’s involvement in a musically-driven show shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given his past. Crowe worked as a Rolling Stone music journalist in the 1970s, which...

Cocksucker Blues

USA, 1972

Directed by Robert Frank

Rock critics, like film critics, abhor a narrative vacuum. Blues begets R&B begets rock n’ roll, which begets the British Invasion, and from there, it’s a multi-pronged evolution into hard rock, glam, punk, and onwards into a million sundry subgenres. Each generation repels against their forbears and creates a new antithesis. The promising rise and the disastrous fall of whoever, precipitating the ascension of the next comers. The straight narrative throughline, complete with its obvious conclusions and waves of comforting familiarity, is the ultimate rock journalist catnip. It’s no surprise, then, that rock movies, whether narrative or documentary, straight or parodic, epic or intimate, tend towards the creation and upholding of rock and roll logic and mythos. Hell, Cameron Crowe made both a life and (most of) a career out of finding a place for himself in that mustiest of Rock Myth chronicles,...

X-Men franchise director Bryan Singer, whose first two features debuted at the Sundance Film Festival — including The Usual Suspects in 1995 — was one of the industry figures named to the Sundance juries that will judge this year’s films when the festival begins next week. Singer, who has X-Men: Days of Future Past due in May, will be one of five members of the U.S. Dramatic Jury. Other members of the juries include Tracy Chapman, Lone Scherfig, Leonard Maltin, and screenwriter Jon Spaihts (Prometheus). A complete list of the juries, courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival, can be viewed after the jump.

Bill Murray is an increasingly busy man, apparently adding an appearance in Cameron Crowe’s latest project to his already brimming slate.

Based on an old, previously unproduced screenplay by writer/director Crowe – Deep Tiki - this project will mark the first collaboration between Murray and the respected director. The re-vamped, re-worked story focuses on a washed up military contractor (Bradley Cooper), who is sent to Hawaii on a highly classified weapons satellite launch mission. On the island, events are complicated by a ‘talking computer’, and the presence of ‘mystical island forces’. He crosses paths with an old flame (Rachel McAdams), and crosses swords with an Air Force pilot (Emma Stone), with whom he must ultimately team with to scupper the mission.

The as yet untitled romantic comedy is already in production and co-stars Danny McBride, Alec Baldwin and Jay Baruchel. The details of Bill Murray’s role are being...

Who doesn’t love Cameron Crowe? The talented American director has made his mark with a filmography of well-received, original, character-driven movies, many positively stunning in the pure sense of joy and optimism that they communicate. Lack of cynicism is a rare gift in Hollywood indeed.

The director is currently hard at work on his latest film, an untitled romantic comedy starring Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Danny McBride and Alec Baldwin. That’s quite an impressive cast, but it doesn’t end there as today we’re hearing that the project has picked up yet another star in the form of This Is The End‘s Jay Baruchel.

The Hawaii-set film, based on an original screenplay by Crowe, will apparently center on a military contractor (Cooper) who recruits an Air Force pilot (Stone) to prevent a top-secret military launch he’s supposed to be helping to facilitate. Inevitably,...

Documentarian Morgan Neville, whose films "Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story," "Muddy Waters Can’t Be Satisfied," and "Johnny Cash’s America" have all been nominated for Grammys, comes to Sundance 2013 with "Twenty Feet From Stardom," playing in the U.S. Documentary section. He also produced "Pearl Jam Twenty," "Beauty is Embarrassing" and "Crossfire Hurricane." Neville's first film, after working as a journalist, was "Shotgun Freeway," which took him three years to complete. "That was really my film school," he said. What It's About: "'Twenty Feet from Stardom' tells the story of a string of amazing backup singers, largely African-American women, who brought the sound of the church into popular music." What It's Really About: "Backup singing is really a metaphor for how we treat those around us. Backup singers concentrate on...

Thirteen years after forming, Soundgarden appeared to disband for good in 1997, following a rankling Lollapalooza jaunt. But another thirteen years later — after a highly visible role fronting Audioslave and releasing three full-length solo albums — singer Chris Cornell got his old band together for a new album, King Animal, which makes ample use of the 48-year-old’s four-octave wail. To mark this occasion, a contemplative Cornell chatted with Vulture about new songs and lost friends, then regaled us with stories about everyone from the Queen of England (“sweet”) to Axl Rose (“sad”).Did participating in the Pearl Jam Twenty documentary trigger any Soundgarden nostalgia for you? Was it an impetus to get the band back together?We were already doing that. We’d already met and had conversations about different things by then. So, no. But I suppose [it was] in the context of Soundgarden getting back together and hanging around those...

Before we get into this week's new releases, I have a deal to bring to your attention, which is Amazon is selling the Coen Brothers Collection on Blu-ray for $19.99, which includes Blood Simple, Fargo, Miller's Crossing and Raising Arizona. You can pick that up right here. In addition to that, Amazon is having a pre-Black Friday Deals Week, which you can learn more about here. Now let's get to this week's new releases. Lawrence of Arabia I did not receive a review copy of this title, though I did try, which tells me I have either been shunned by Sony or my email is going in the Junk Mail box on the opposite side of the digital spectrum. Oh well, it looks like I will be adding it to my Wish List as I really do love Lawrence of Arabia and owning it on Blu-ray would be excellent, though it's...

Chicago – Few music documentaries transcend the fan base of their artist to become something greater. Of course, there are the classics like “Stop Making Sense” and “The Last Waltz” and I would add “Pearl Jam Twenty” to that list. But most music films are designed for one purpose — to appeal to the musican’s fans. So, if you’re going to judge a film based on what it intends to accomplish, you have to ask yourself — would Katy Perry fans like “Katy Perry: Part of Me”? Undeniably.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Personally, I’m not a Katy Perry fan at all, and I still enjoyed most of “Part of Me” because it’s a well-made, well-produced, well-edited, catchy tune of a music doc. The movie hums along without succumbing to the general problems of movies like this that often become little more than commercials or repetitive concert footage compilations. The reason “Part of Me...

The concert documentary is nothing new. Massive acts like The Rolling Stones (1970’s Gimmie Shelter) and Led Zeppelin (1976’s The Song Remains the Same) offered fans a rare peek behind the touring curtain while also providing live versions of hit songs. The process has been fine-tuned over the years by bands like U2 (Rattle and Hum), Talking Heads (Stop Making Sense) and Pearl Jam (Pearl Jam Twenty), to name just a few. This weekend, Katy Perry joins the list of pop artists who have brought their live act to movie theaters for an immersive 3D experience. Perry’s Part of Me 3D features the California Girl performing most of her chart-topping hits as part of her recent global tour. Fans wearing special Katy Perry 3D glasses...

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

It is a perpetually taxing question for documentary filmmakers; how should one view their subject? Aim too broadly and fans will be disappointed, but a trained focus also invites dangers of crafting a doting hagiography. Kevin MacDonald’s long-gestating Bob Marley documentary has finally arrived, and appears to have found a way to answer this question, providing an intimate glimpse into the singer’s life while remaining accessible enough to the casuals.

Marley is perhaps best comparable to Cameron Crowe’s recent Pearl Jam Twenty doc which, while an adequate study, came off as vaguely disingenuous as the band members self-consciously spoke of their own aversion to fame. MacDonald’s film, obviously lacking access to the man himself, leaves it to the friends and family left behind to paint a more genuine – yet no less intimate – examination of one of pop culture’s most popular and enduring figures.

Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch. This week we offer alternatives to The Lucky One, Chimpanzee & Marley.

Zac Efron fronts this Nicholas Sparks’ drama about a Marine who, upon returning from his tour of duty in Iraq, goes in search of the unknown woman he believes was his lucky charm. Taylor Schilling co-stars; Scott Hicks directs.

Craving more veteran-centered dramas:

A Marine Story (2010) Dreya Weber stars as a Marine forced to make sense of civilian life after being abruptly discharged. Initially lost, she finds new purpose mentoring a troubled teen girl with aims to enlist. Paris P. Pickard co-stars; Ned Farr directs.

The Messenger (2009) In this acclaimed indie drama Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster play a pair of vets assigned the emotionally devastating duty of informing military family’s of a soldier’s death.

Chicago – “Undefeated” takes some time to connect. It’s like a football team that starts slow and can’t quite find the right play calls for the first quarter. I’ll admit to being nonplussed at the start of the film as it seemed unfocused and a bit disconnected. Then something amazing happens. These guys start to connect. They start to become real. You start to root for them. Feel for them. Even care about them. This is one of the best sports documentaries of the last few years and while I don’t think it should have won in a Very good year for non-fiction film, I’m really not upset at all that it did.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Damn, 2011 was amazing for documentaries. Werner Herzog made two (“Into the Abyss,” “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”). Steve James made one nearly as good as his “Hoop Dreams” (“The Interrupters”). Cameron Crowe (“Pearl Jam Twenty...

Chicago – On Sunday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will name what they consider to be the Best Documentary of 2011. They will be wrong. How do I know? Because it’s not even nominated. The actual best documentary of last year (which was a Very good year from the form with everything from “Into the Abyss” to “Tabloid” to “Pearl Jam Twenty” to “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”) was not nominated. That title goes to Steve James’ “The Interrupters,” which was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD and is simply a must-see.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

The people profiled in “The Interrupters” are true heroes. They have been through a darkness that most of you reading this can’t even imagine and they didn’t come through it shell-shocked or afraid; they came through it wanting to make a difference in the world. Where most people see a lost cause or something that demands a forceful response,...

A documentary portrait by filmmaker and avid music lover Cameron Crowe ("Almost Famous," "Pearl Jam Twenty"), "The Union" has a pretty simple concept: chronicling the making of The Union, the eponymously titled album by Elton John and the ultimate rock & roll session man Leon Russell, a musician also known for a solo career featuring his angelic yet gravely voice in songs that blend rock, country, blues, and gospel. What makes that premise notable is the fact that these two music legends are uniting for the first time in almost 40 years, after their '70s heyday. Beginning in 2010, "The Union" starts with John's after-the-fact raison d'etre: after 40-some records, what should one of the most iconic musicians in rock do for an encore? Emotionally affected by an old Leon Russell song -- Russell being one of his musical idols and peers from the '70s -- John decides what might be...

While on the surface it appeared as if Cameron Crowe laid dormant after 2005's "Elizabethtown," the truth is quite the opposite. The "Vanilla Sky" filmmaker wrote a Marvin Gaye film (still unproduced as of now) and a "Jerry Maguire"-like romantic comedy set in Hawaii with a spiritual element to it ("Deep Tiki," also unproduced), and in 2011, released two films: the documentary, "Pearl Jam Twenty," and the feature-length effort, "We Bought a Zoo" starring Matt Damon (which grossed almost $72 million domestically; not bad for a film which some called a box-office dude at first). Crowe also debuted another documentary last year called "The Union," which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film is a look at the making of Elton John and Leon Russell's collaborative album of the same name, The Union, produced by T-Bone Burnett, and the documentary airs on HBO tomorrow. Below we have four clips of.

Okay, so the 2012 nominations from the Motion Picture Sound Editors (Mpse) weren't as helpful as I thought they would be as they have several categories and several nominees in each. So when predicting Best Sound Editing it is essentially a crap shoot though I was happy to see most of the contenders I had in my database before this did earn nominations. In an effort to keep this short and simple, my #1 pick goes to Ben Burtt's work on Super 8 followed in order by Hugo, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin. Yeah, that sounds good enough to me and you can browse my seven other contenders in the category at my official Oscar predictions page right here. Otherwise, the Mpse will announce their winners on February 19, five days before the Oscars and just in time to help us predict the winner.

The Motion Picture Sound Editors today announced their 2012 Mpse Golden Reel Award nominations which acknowledge the year’s best work in sound and music editing in motion pictures and television in various categories: Dialogue & Adr, Effects & Foley, and Music. ”The significance of sound should not be underestimated,” said Mpse president Bobbi Banks. “The emotional intimacy of the sound experience is amplified by giving the audience the perception that they are encountering the same state of cognitive consciousness as the characters.” The Mpse is honoring producer Gale Anne Hurd for the 2012 Mpse Filmmaker Award and sound designer/editor George Watters II for the Mpse Career Achievement Award. The 59th Golden Reel Awards will be held February 19th at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Downtown La. Here are the 2012 nominations: Feature Films Category Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue, and Adr in an Animation Feature Film The Adventures of Tintin Cars 2...

Cameron Crowe has returned this year with a vengeance, with three pictures in the form of two music documentaries -- the Elton John centered "The Union" and "Pearl Jam Twenty" -- and in just a few short weeks, "We Bought A Zoo." And the material is a bit different than what we've seen from the diretor so far.  Based on the best-selling memoir by Benjamin Mee, and penned by "The Devil Wears Prada" writer Aline Brosh McKenna (and fine tuned by Crowe to fit his sensibilties), the story centers on a widowed father (Matt Damon), who keeps a promise to his dead wife and buys a ramshackle home that also happens to adjoin an animal sanctuary. From here he strikes up a relationship with a zookeeper, played by Scarlett Johansson, as the family heals its wounds. The movie had a sneak preview over the Thanksgiving weekend and confirmed our suspicions...

While Cameron Crowe directed “We Bought A Zoo,” he and his team juggled completing this fall’s “Pearl Jam Twenty” documentary and “The Union,” his film about the making of Elton John and Leon Russell’s 2010 album of the same name, which comes out in January. “They all fueled each other,” Crowe says, noting that he’s hardly the first moviemaker to multi-task. “To me, the best documentary certainly in the last 25 years was [2005’s] ‘No Direction Home,’ and I heard [Martin] Scorsese did that while he was doing ‘The Departed’.” For “We Bought A Zoo,” which had a sneak peak this...

DVD Playhouse—November 2011

By Allen Gardner

Tree Of Life (20th Century Fox) Terrence Malick’s latest effort is both the best film of 2011 and the finest work of his (arguably) mixed, but often masterly canon. A series of vignettes, mostly set in 1950s Texas, capture the memory of a man (Sean Penn) in present-day New York who looks back on his life, and his parents’ (Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain) troubled marriage, when word of his younger brother’s suicide reaches him. Almost indescribable beyond that, except to say no other film in history so perfectly evokes the magic and mystery of the human memory, which both crystalizes (and sometimes idealizes) the past. Like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, this is a challenging, polarizing work that you must let wash over you. If you go along for the ride, you’re in for a unique, rewarding cinematic experience. Also available on Blu-ray disc.

Every single year come awards season, it's always upsetting to see the blatant misfires on the Academy's short list of films eligible for the Best Documentary Oscar. Just last year [1], the big story wasn't so much that Exit Through the Gift Shop or Restrepo were up for the award, it was that films like Catfish, Best Worst Movie and Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work were snubbed. This year it's more of the same. Much more. Fifteen films have been chosen that will be narrowed down to five to tangle for the Oscar itself and on that list are several exceptional documentaries: Bill Cunningham New York, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory and Project Nim (above) just to name a few. Not on the list, however are Constance Mark's Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, Steve James’s The Interrupters, Werner Herzog‘s Into the Abyss, Errol Morris' Tabloid, Ian Palmer's Knuckle,...

Cameron Crowe is a big fan of Pearl Jam, the Seattle-borne band now entering its second decade. You might have heard of it – and you might've heard of Crowe, the writer/director of Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, and Vanilla Sky among others. Following the release of Crowe's The Union (the film opened this year's Tribeca Film Festival), Pearl Jam Twenty is a different breed of music doc – where The Union logged studio time with Elton John and Leon Russell, Pj Twenty covers years of Pearl Jam history, the trials and tribulations of the band – and Eddie Vedder. Vedder is undoubtedly the face, voice and image most people associate with the band and Crowe, while unabashedly admiring the musicians, doesn't deny Vedder's looming over the band as a whole and the resulting conflicts.

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This year marks the twentieth anniversary of enduring five-piece rock band Pearl Jam, and Almost Famous filmmaker Cameron Crowe’s documentary Pearl Jam Twenty is a thorough tribute to their undeniable part of rock ‘n’ roll history.

Crowe’s treasure trove of ephemera and archival footage is a Pj fan’s dream, chronicling the street-level beginnings of the passionate garage band and their meteoric ascent to sold out arenas, all accompanied by their heartfelt lyrics, which take new meaning throughout the film’s compelling context.

Born in the Seattle “grunge movement” from the ashes of an earlier incarnation, Pearl Jam arose after the tragic overdose of Mother Love Bone lead singer and driving force Andy Wood. Members of the band fight back tears two decades later, but Wood’s untimely death was an early lesson about drugs that shocked them into avoiding the music industry’s all-too familiar fate. By fortunate circumstance,...

Cameron Crowe has to bounce back. He just has to. There.s no way the heartfelt filmmaker responsible for Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and the masterful Almost Famous can deliver another misfire after Elizabethtown. While he has flexed his creative muscle on two impressive musical documentaries in The Union and Pearl Jam Twenty (both worth your time), Crowe fans are waiting with bated breath for his next feature, We Bought a Zoo, to see if the beloved storyteller can get back on track. Today, a poster dropped on TheUncool.com, Crowe.s official fan site. We have it below: It.s a simple design for what could be a simple drama about a wayward soul (Matt Damon) who moves his young family to a large tract of California land that happens to house a semi-defunct zoo. It.s a rebuilding project, much like Crowe, himself. But I love when Crowe...

Title: Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest Director: Michael Rapaport Lately, there’s been a run of music documentaries coming out, more of them being actual love letters to the music instead of actual films is slightly annoying to the landscape of cinema. Recently, Cameron Crowe released his love letter to Pearl Jam in “Pearl Jam Twenty,” which was an examination of how wonderful the band Pearl Jam was and is in pop culture and to Cameron Crowe. But despite the glitzy frills of concert footage and more recent interviews melded with home videos from the late 80s and early 90s, “Pearl Jam Twenty” doesn’t offer...

Chicago – Some of the best documentaries ever made happen to be about music and the creative expression behind it. Whether it be an acknowledged masterpiece like Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” or Jonathan Demme’s “Stop Making Sense” or the more-recent and smaller films like “Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man” or “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten.” One of the best ever made recently played at the Siskel Film Center and was on PBS about ten days ago before a DVD release last week — Cameron Crowe’s “Pearl Jam Twenty.” See it.

The writer/director of “Jerry Maguire” and the upcoming “We Bought a Zoo” has been following Pearl Jam for the entirety of their existence. He moved to Seattle at just the right time, as the scene there was about to internationally explode with the likes of Nirvana, Soundgarden, and much more. With an amazing amount of archival footage,...

[1] After directing only six feature films over the course of 16 years (the last of those being 2005's Elizabethtown) director Cameron Crowe has had an unusually busy 2011. He's already released two documentaries this year -- the Elton John picture The Union and Pearl Jam Twenty -- and has We Bought a Zoo due out in December. And apparently, he plans to keep up this pace for the time being, with one film prepped for a March start and another one planned for after that. More details after the jump. Crowe laid out his plans in an interview with The New York Times [2]. When asked whether he would wait as long as he did between Elizabethtown and We Bought a Zoo to make his next film, he responded, "Not anymore, baby." Crowe then revealed that he had just finished writing a comedy script that he hopes to start shooting in March, and...

0:00 - Intro 6:30 - Headlines: First Photo of The Three Stooges, New Line Picks Up Found Footage Tornado Movie, Actress Sues IMDb for Revealing Her Age, Spielberg Blames Indy 4 on George Lucas, Sam Jackson is the Highest Grossing Actor Ever 22:25 - Review: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil 42:00 - Trailer Trash: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol 49:45 - Other Stuff We Watched: Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Frighteners, Chopped, Restaurant Impossible, Pearl Jam Twenty, Cape Fear, The Mask, The Innkeepers, Diabolique 1:47:02 - Junk Mail: Paranormal Activity 3 Lead In, Movies that Address the Audience, Found Footage Films with Documentary Directors, Documentaries on Reality TV, Movies That Are Better with Smaller or Bigger Budgets, Jay's Old Movies, How Does Jay Afford Stuff, Favourite Songs with Lyrics from Movies, Listening to the Soundtrack Before You See the Movie 2:17:20 - This Week's DVD Releases 2:23:...

Will it be six years until we see the next Cameron Crowe film? That was the hiatus taken between the critical and financial disaster that was Elizabethtown and the upcoming dramedy We Bought A Zoo, starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson [The Playlist].

It would appear not. Crowe has completed his next screenplay and wants to start shooting in March. The man is always generating ideas, whether its a Marvin Gaye biopic, a poten Say Anything… sequel (which he’s admitted is more a pipe dream than anything else) and a film inspired by the slew of talented child actors that auditioned for Zoo.

It would appear this latter idea is the script Crowe spoke of to the New York Times in a recent profile. Features aside, it’s been a busy year for the music lover, premiering two music documentaries (The Union, focusing on Elton John and Leon Russell’s T. Bone...

Before seeing Cameron Crowe's "Pearl Jam Twenty," I was all set on naming "Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest" the best music documentary of 2011. But how do I weigh these two films against each other? My first thought for comparison has to do with something I read (and of course can no longer locate) of "Beats" director Michael Rapaport saying that he made the film about Atcq, not for them. Sure he loves that group and didn't want to (nor did he) produce a negative portrait of them, but it features enough objective balance…...

"Pearl Jam Twenty," the documentary celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the titular band (and now available on DVD), is bookended by two performances of the song "Alive."

The first, filmed on grainy home video in 1990, offers up a young band crying defiance in front of a small audience. The second, filmed in New York City's Madison Square Garden in 2010, showcases a group of fortysomethings celebrating perseverance with a crowd that numbers in the tens of thousands.

How the band in the first clip became the band in the second is the story director Cameron Crowe is trying to tell, and for the most part, he succeeds brilliantly, providing a comprehensive account of what amounts to a musical institution.

Also Check Out: "Pearl Jam Twenty" Soundtrack Review

But is it a good movie? That's an interesting question. To be sure, this is an incredibly thorough exploration of the band and its origins,...

It's another big week for DVD and Blu-ray releases with Captain America: The First Avenger hitting stores along with Disney's traditional 2D animated Winnie the Pooh and the fantastic British sci-fi / horror / comedy Attack the Block. Genre fans will also want to check out the Finnish cult classic Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, Spanish found footage horror flick Atrocious, and (for the extreme moviegoer) the notoriously nasty A Serbian Film. Cameron Crowe's Pearl Jam Twenty is also out this week, and on Blu-ray we have the Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy and Francis Ford Coppola's classic 1974 thriller The Conversation. What will you be picking up this week? Check out the full list of new releases after the jump. Amazon.com Widgets

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Cameron Crowe is just getting warmed up for what will be a very busy fall and winter. He's got his next feature film "We Bought A Zoo" being prepped for a December 23rd bow, and early in the new year will see HBO release his Elton John documentary "The Union." But before that, he's got "Pearl Jam Twenty," a comprehensive look at the band in celebration of their twenty years of making music. After playing some festival dates and getting a limited release last month, "Pearl Jam Twenty" arrives in your local record shop today, and to help spur the…...

Pearl Jam Twenty, a brand new Cameron Crowe movie, is out on DVD today. The documentary is Crowe's ode not only to the multi-platinum band who came to personify the Nineties grunge movement, but also to music in the last twenty years as a whole. Crowe uses Pearl Jam as the conduit to tell the story of how grunge in the 1990s changed the cultural landscape much in the way rock in the Sixties, disco in the Seventies or metal in the Eighties changed how people lived their lives. From there, it shows how a group of people who've grown apart in many ways can find a common ground to still bring joy to people's lives after two decades. Told with humor and passion, Crowe's Pearl Jam Twenty is a fine film even if you could care less about the band. For a little taste [1] of what it has to offer,...

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'Pearl Jam Twenty' is a love letter to Pearl Jam and the band's fans by one of its biggest fans: director Cameron Crowe. The film screened around the country in September, was available on-demand and even aired as part of the PBS series 'American Masters' on Friday night. The film is now out on DVD, and in honor of the release, Crowe has released a new video for 'Not For You,' one of the stronger singles from the band's 1994 release, Vitalogy.

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