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Almost Famous

In some ways, the life that writer-director Cameron Crowe led before becoming the acclaimed auteur behind Jerry Maguire, Singles, and Say Anything... is more interesting than the movies he's made. Before he, as a writer for Rolling Stone Magazine, went undercover as a high school student to write the popular book Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which became an iconic '80s movie, Crowe wrote about music for Rolling Stone...at age 15. When I was 15, I was sitting in a movie theater, watching Almost Famous, Crowe's autobiographical look at his time as a teenage journalist, wondering how a guy could be so lucky and why that guy couldn't be me. With newcomer Patrick Fugit as Crowe's stand-in, Almost Famous takes a biting look at the music industry in the 1970s, while also being filled with poignant and classic moments, such as the tour bus sing-a-long of Elton John's Tiny Dancer, or the declaration by the lead singer of the fictional band Stillwater, "I am a golden god!" Granted, the man isn't anything close to a golden god, but watching Billy Crudup's Russell Hammond dive headlong into a pool, or Fugit's William Miller hopelessly pine for Penny Lane (Kate Hudson, in the fluky role of her career) reminds you of what you wish your teenage years were like: parties, beautiful girls, and rock music.


Say Anything...

Cameron Crowe does coming-of-age well...what can I say? His 1989 dramedy is a great realization of high school for the kids who don't get to ride shotgun with big rock bands. Starring John Cusack as the classic Lloyd Dobler and Ione Skye as the brilliant, beautiful Diane Court, Say Anything... is about these two kids' blooming romance at the end of their senior year. Diane, while respected for her brains, is socially inept, making her first major appearance at a high school party that happens to be a post-graduation blowout. She's asked to go by Lloyd, a kickboxing slacker who doesn't know what he wants to do, but knows very much what he doesn't want to do; his monologue about avoiding selling, buying, or processing anything as a career is classic. Though Lloyd and Diane are completely opposite from each other, his gentleness woos her over, even though there are bumps on the road (leading, of course, to that iconic image of Cusack holding a boombox over his head). Part of what makes Say Anything... such a classic movie is its willingness to focus away from the kids, specifically in the subplot about Diane's dad (John Mahoney) and his corrupt financial dealings. It does help that Cusack and Skye have great chemistry, as do the other teenage characters, played by Lili Taylor, Loren Dean, and Jeremy Piven, among others. Say Anything... isn't Crowe's most popular film, but it's his most heartwarming and touching, one that really speaks to the awkward teenager hiding in all of us.

To Kill A Mockingbird

Based on the Harper Lee novel that's required reading in almost any school in America, To Kill A Mockingbird is the 1962 classic from Robert Mulligan, starring Gregory Peck as the best father anyone could ask for: he's smart, kind, and can fire a shotgun better than your dad. Peck plays Atticus Finch, the sole brave man in town willing to take the case of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman in the town of Maycomb. To Kill A Mockingbird is also said to be based very much on Lee's childhood; in the film, she's personified as Scout, a tomboy who learns about racism, who her family and friends really are, and other typically sentimental and saccharine topics.

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