A Richly Poor Film (spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 2004)

Cameron Crowe has not been able to tell a story since '96. Vanilla Sky, far more flawed than Almost Famous, is very nearly about nothing at all. Every other scene talks about pop music, and every scene has two pop songs in it, yet the film is remarkably not about pop music. Some may say it is about pop culture - okay then fine, what about pop culture? It is vain? I don't know how we can make this claim when clearly Crowe loves the album art of Freewheelin Bob Dylan and the film Jules et Jim, even though those narratives are what drive our protagonist David to his self-loathing suicide. I just think he's a voyeur, a voyeur that wishes he was Tom Cruise and this is what we get out of his neurotic obsession with pop culture - this harrowing tale of confusion that is at times inspired and at other times haphazard - together with Sugga Ros and The Chemical Brothers and Jeff Buckley and Paul (stop now!) McCartney. The film is jarring alarming, and poorly conceived in a very elaborate and richly designed way that is worth watching at least once. It's fascinating how this man cannot tell a story.