Movies of 2000 Bracket Game: Almost Famous Vs. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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https://lebeauleblog.com/2020/04/20/movies-of-2000-bracket-game-almost-famous-vs-o-brother-where-art-thou/
The year 2000 seems like such a simple time now! We survived the dreaded Y2K without incident and we had no idea of the challenges before us. This new bracket game takes us back to a time when Tom Cruise was on his second impossible mission, Tom Hanks was cast away, Mel Gibson was what women wanted and Russell Crowe made sure we were entertained.
Which movie from twenty years ago will readers pick as their favorite? You can help decide. Just make sure you don’t leave a hanging chad when you vote.
Our final two movies are arguably tuneful dramedies from talented filmmakers. I would argue that Cameron Crowe’s entire career built to his semi-autobiographical coming-of-age movie, Almost Famous. It’s his best movie and he hasn’t done anything worthwhile since.
The movie recounts Crowe’s adventures as a bright young man who somehow finagled his way into a gig writing about rock n’roll for Rolling Stone magazine at a time when classic rock was cresting. Almost Famous is a love letter to the seventies and everyone who was ever passionate about a rock band.
When the movie was released, Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee and Philip Seymour Hoffman were familiar to movie buffs. But they were far from household names. Aside from Crowe, who was coming off Jerry Maguire, the biggest stars of Almost Famous were Oscar winning actresses Frances McDormand and Anna Paquin.
McDormand won her Oscar for Fargo which was written and co-directed by her husband, Joel Coen. Joel is one half of the sibling team collectively known as the Coen brothers. His brother Ethan co-writes and produces their movies. The brothers are exceptionally popular with readers here at Le Blog. Should O Brother win the Movies of 2000 Bracket Game, it will make the third victory for the Coens.
The movie is loosely based on Homer’s The Odyssey. Like Almost Famous, music is front and center in O Brother, Where Art Thou? The comic adventure is set to the tune of toe-tapping folk music. The chart-topping soundtrack won the Grammy for album of the year.
George Clooney headed up a cast that included Coen brother regulars like John Turturro, John Goodman and Holly Hunter. At the time, O Brother was the top-grossing movie in the brothers’ filmography topping Fargo.
Both of our finalists received limited attention from the Academy Awards. Almost Famous received two nominations for Best Supporting Actress and won the prize for Best Original Screenplay. O Brother only nabbed nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography. It lost in both categories.
Which movie will readers pick as their favorite? It’s time to cast your vote! Please do not be confused by the fact that Almost Famous was mislabeled as High Fidelity. Voting ends Friday at noon EST. Then come back next week for the final retrospective bracket game of the year.
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