Soundtracking: "Almost Famous"

Chris Feil's weekly series looks back at Cameron Crowe's rock opus...

Of everything that Almost Famous gets right about our relationship with music, its richest insights come from how it explores the importance of music in adolescence. Cameron Crowe is telling his own story of his teenage music journalism days in the film, but that’s not solely why the film feels so personal. It’s personal because it’s about that time in our life when music is never more personal.

When Crowe stand-in William Miller is gifted a treasure chest of vinyl from his sister Anita she isn’t just handing over the greats, she’s tasking him to find himself. At that age our musical taste is a vessel to both define ourselves and connect to others, to develop some kind of community or shared experience. It’s in the background of every heartbreak and happy memory, even if it just played in our heads. Through music, Crowe makes the intensely personal into something universal. Just like a song.

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Here Today, Gone Trevorrow: "Book of Henry" Director Off Star Wars

by Daniel Crooke

While rumors of internal discontent have swirled since the release (and subsequent critical evisceration) of his heartwarming revenge thriller The Book of Henry, the Kiss of Death for Colin Trevorrow in the Star Wars Universe may just have been the moment Sarah Silverman laid a wet one on a dying boy genius as a parting gift from the suffering of this mortal coil.

Of course, this is speculation. Despite the timing of his departure – mere months after the catastrophic miscalculation that was Henry, onscreen and at the box office – what we do know, per a statement from Disney, is this: Colin Trevorrow has parted ways with Lucasfilm, and will no longer direct the ninth installment of the Star Wars franchise...

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OTD: Yul Marries, Macy Screams, Fellini Premieres

on this day in showbiz-related history...

1944 Yul Brynner marries his first wife, actress Virginia Gilmore, in Los Angeles. They're both in their mid 20s. She's already made 15 movies but he's just starting out with two Broadway shows under his belt. Their marriage will last 16 years and they will have one child together. Rock Brynner (their son) will go on to write a book about his dad and their family history.

1954 Federico Fellini's La Strada premieres at the Venice Film Festival and goes on to win the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Fellini will go on to completely own that category, winning thrice more with The Nights of Cabiria (1957), 8½ (1963), and Amarcord (1974)

Macy Gray, The King's Speech, and more after the jump...

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Mother! has arrived ~ La Pfeiffer in Venice

by Nathaniel R

Mother! arrives in movie theaters in just one week and people are calling it "insane". So YOU are if you think I'm reading any festival reviews before laying mine own Pfeiffer-deprived eyes upon it. Oh sure I've watched the trailer and the head-tilt clip a million times (good call, Murtada) but that's enough until the whole 121 minutes unspools before me.

Nevertheless we must celebrate the RePfeiffal which gets its first big red carpet outing in Venice. I mean just look at her...

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Some Rami to Love

Look, it's the first image of Rami Malek as the iconic Freddie Mercury in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. The film will be directed by Bryan Singer, who is stepping away from the mutants for once, unless you count Freddie Mercury's mutant lungs / range (four octaves -heeeyyy) which maybe you should. What'cha think?

It's quite a fine image, really. Rami's unique facial structure really plays up the Freddieness once you add that moustache. For what it's worth we are promised that this will not be a traditional biopic (it covers only the formation of the band in 1970 through their Live-Aid performance in 1985). There have been murmurs that the project might not do justice to Freddie's story, or his sexuality, because the surviving members of Queen are totally involved. That's always tricky with true stories when the actual people are involved in telling it.

With deep apologies to Queen, I'm now singing one of my favorite of their hits with new lyrics

All we hear is Rami oh ga ga
Rami oh goo goo
Rami oh ga ga
All we hear is Rami oh ga ga
Rami oh blah blah
Rami oh, what's new?
Rami oh, someone still loves you!