Vanilla Sky

Cameron Crowe, 2001

Can I Stream it?

5/5

Publishing empire heir David Ames (Tom Cruise) struggles to put the pieces back together in his life after a horrible automobile accident with lover Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz)

Cameron Crowe is an interesting filmmaker, having taken many directions over the course of his career. He pursued his heart with Say Anything. He pursued his love of music (and of course his own history of journalism for Rolling Stone) with Almost Famous. He pursued personal reflection and personal unraveling in Jerry Maguire. He mistakenly tried to make a more populist kid-pleaser picture with We Bought a Zoo, but that feels like a film that didn't ultimately become what he had originally envisioned. But Vanilla Sky is his most interesting work, his most ambitious work, his most under-appreciated. It's already such a bold move taking one of the biggest actors in Hollywood at the time (Cruise), and disfiguring his face. That aside, he also demanded a big performance from Cruise who really did deliver. There are so many elements at work, some of them so obviously personal to Crowe. The way that this movie looks at love and death, memories, blossoming love. It hasn't been done exactly like this before. The effect of our memories on our subconscious. The impact of dreams. The toxic elements of our life that we fall into. Societal structure, technology, it's really all there. People often criticize this film for being too convoluted, confusing. That's actually quite surprising, because the reveal at the climax really does lay everything out there. The film really builds and builds, getting more complex. The final moments on screen our so powerful and emotional. It should have you questioning your own life, your own existence.

Elizabethtown

Cameron Crowe, 2005

(REWATCHED)

3/5

Drew Baylor is a shoe designer who is feeling the guilt of a huge loss for his company. He assumes things can't get any worse for him, and then he receives a phone call from his sister telling him that his father died. He soon must travel to his father's hometown of Elizabethtown as the family comes together for the funeral. 

People over the years have horribly criticized Elizabethtown. And unfairly. Anyone who is a fan of Cameron Crowe's work can feel his presence in this. He's there. It's just that there's too much of him there. It's unfair to just completely dismiss Elizabethtown as a mess. It's not a mess. There's just TOO MUCH going on. Cameron Crowe obviously had a lot to say. But this should have been two movies. Maybe three. The story of losing his father, and returning home to Elizabeth. One film. And I know, Garden State. But Crowe would have executed that better than Zach Braff. Him meeting Claire on an airplane? It's a great story, it really is. But thats another film. Both stories were conflicting. They didn't blend well and didn't play nice with each other. It's a shame, because some of the scenes in this film feel so real. The late night phone conversation with Claire. The chaos of the cousins screaming in the tight house. The forced neurotic distractions by his mother. At times the characters in the film do feel like caricatures, but they are still placed in very real moments.

Too much teasing. By the time the funeral scene rolled around, Claire should have been pregnant. "I Like You" – they should have been and were in love at that point. Orlando Bloom is engaging, it's just a shame that Crowe over-used him. Transitional shots of him dancing on an iron bridge, aimlessly pacing through his hotel room. Let him play to his strengths. Let the story breathe. His character was complex, and a lot of the time you could just see it on his face.

The roadtrip scene in the final act is the dagger in the heart of Elizabethtown. The intended emotion to that chapter is lost because you are still feeling (or should be) the effects of the funeral. Instead of the film ending at the funeral, you now have to get in a car with Drew for 42 hours. In the end, it's probably a film that probably looked so good on paper. It has all of the qualities of a Cameron Crowe film. Great music, real love, real emotion. Unfortunately it was just scattered all over the place. Maybe the editor is to blame. Maybe its Crowe. Either way, there should have been meetings about this. There is the real possibility that Cameron Crowe could have had two great films here, instead he had one OKAY one.