Two Films - A Positive Kick!

July 4th, 2016. No picnic, BBQ or fireworks for us. We walked around the hood, worked on learning our lines for a theater piece we are doing in August, and then watched two extraordinary, music-themed movies.

The first one, is a confirmed classic, Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous." A beloved movie. For some reason, when I saw it many years ago it didn't blow me away. I thought it was a "nice film" but that's all. This time it was a transformative experience. The soundtrack is amazing. And this time I really understood the "death of innocence" theme -  took it in deep, it all hit home.

Every time Elton John started singing the tears flowed. Really!

But you know, it's a positive movie, grounded in Crowe's real experiences as a young rock and roll writer. And the innocence, the decency, the "positivity" of the whole enterprise seems so noble, and powerful, and touching. I realize I track with Crowe step for step. It's brilliant, beautiful. A truly great film. No doubt.

The second movie we watched was "24 Hour Party People." A film grounded in the real world experiences of Tony Wilson of Factory records fame. It's about the Manchester music scene in the late 70's and early 80's, and it's about a mad-cap dreamer, idealistic, unreasonable, unsinkable.

Another film about a madly beautiful time and place. Hilarious. A tour de force for Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson. To watch both films back to back was such a life-affirming, positive kick. Now that's a holiday for sure!