365 Days. 365 Films.

Today’s film is one I have wanted to watch for a good few years but for some reason I was completely oblivious to the plot until I watched it earlier. For some reason I thought the plot was going to be similar to Coyote Ugle… It isn’t. The story follows a fifteen year old budding music critic who manages to follow a band, Still Water, around the country, hoping to write a cover feature for Rolling Stone magazine.

Being set in the 1970s, the film has an awesome soundtrack including David Bowie, The Who and Led Zeppelin. The characters are well written, especially Penny Lane, played by Kate Hudson, a ‘band-aid’ (not a groupie) who follows around the band. In my opinion this was the best aspect of this film – her character was dark, dejected and Kate Hudson really brought Penny to life. Another favourite in this film is Frances McDormand; even though she didn’t have a huge part she does play it well (William’s mother) and brings a new level of emotion and an underlying storyline into the film.

This film has been around for eleven years now but still stands up today. If you’re a fan of Cameron Crowe (Vanilla Sky, Jerry Maguire) then you should definitely watch this if you haven’t already and if you’re not a fan of Cameron Crowe then what’s wrong with you? He is a spectacular director, demonstrable in this movie with the subtle but evocative cinematography, pushing the talents to the limits of the story bringing out amazing performances within a difficult style; the film is emotional, funny and very dark in places. In my opinion, to pull off this odd combination of themes this well is the work of a genius. When you can cry one minute and laugh a second later, it really does create a tremendous connection with the audience.