Whatever hapened to the small movies that are about the music, movies like Almost Famous and Begin Again but most of all, what happened to movies like High Fidelity?
The point that I am trying to make actually is, what happened to movies where the stories were spun around the sound track? Sure I can go and watch movies from Cameron Crowe over and over again like I do all the time with Elizabethtown when I feel bad, when I feel sad or when I am lonely but lets be honest, I think movies like High Fidelity that tell perhaps a story about misery but also about being together, about love, about life and perhaps about coming together.
I have to admit that stories like these are perhaps all too common but the soundtrack is perhaps the drive of these movies and who can blame the directors for choosing these songs because they go with the story, they are part of the story because sometimes a song is better suited than merely words.
Maybe the time for big musical movies is over and I am just sitting here at home, playing a record on vinyl, watching the old classics again and again because of the way they make me feel which I know sounds perhaps quite crazy.
Still, dont get me wrong, I love the movies that are coming out these days but sometimes I miss a gem like High Fidelity, movies that could be about you, about me, about friends we know. It makes the big picture perhaps seem smaller. We dont always have to watch a big blockbuster to be entertained, sometimes a small indie project can be just as good, you just need to learn to appreciate it sometimes I guess.
High Fidelity is perhaps quite special to me, not because I saw it when it came out and went to see it countless times but perhaps because I discovered this beautiful movie when I was actually diving into my vinyl phase a couple of years ago. A phase that was not even started because I started to get interested into vinyl but that actually began when I was buying a turntable and some records for my father and even though my collection is not that big it still is interesting to sometimes just go to the local record store and browse, discovering new music and new artists.
Funny thing is actually that I am not a huge Jack Black fan, partially the way he behaves in this movie is actually the reason why I am not a big fan of him and yet this is also the way I enjoy watching movies with him in them because of his passion for music. I know, it is a bit of a dilemma, guess he is actually one of the biggest love him or hate him actors in the world but in this movie he is the necessary character to bind it all together in the end.
Perhaps the strength of High Fidelity (to get back to the movie) is that it could actually be about you and me, sure we might not own a record store but all things considered the story is one that is something that could happen to all of us, it is not impossible you could say, it could happen to all of us, we all face the same doubts in a relationship and make similar mistakes and that is what makes this movie so down to Earth while it is also telling us that even though we might not have achieved all that we wanted to we can still try and reach higher and for that I have to admit, this might be one of John Cusacks finest roles he ever played and I wish that he did more movies like this but I guess that in this day and age it might be too much to ask when most of the audience wants actually to see movies like the Avengers or movies like The Glass House, we have art-house and we have commercial blockbusters and the little indie movies like these, the small musicals, well they might stay in the shadow a bit so we have to look hard for gems like these but trust me, they are worth your time if you just want to escape the everyday slur.
And yes, that brings me automatically to a movie that perhaps many of you might even have skipped, you probably dont know it but a couple of years ago there was a movie called The Hundred Foot Journey. It is a small movie with Helen Mirren and Om Puri who might not be the leading roles but they sure are the more memorable ones. It is a movie about food but also a movie about life and once again brought to life through passion. Passion brought to the screen by directors like Lasse Hallstrom whom you might remember from a little movie called Chocolat and Hachi (and yes, Safe Haven and Dear John).
But I guess I am drifting too far from the story. Guess what matters is the stories about life, stories about a journey that we might not watch straight away but eventually will be worth your time.
In the couple of months I will blog each week about these movies and I will review them and write you about the power and passion that they bring to the screen.
I hope this blog post started your appetite, it sure has made me hungry and so, time to watch The Hundred Foot Journey.