WE BOUGHT A ZOO Film Review

There are people who want Cameron Crowe to do a sequel to 'Say Anything', because they want to see what Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack) is up to twenty-something years later. But the thing is, you can see a little bit of him in Benjamin Mee. You can see a bit of Penny Lane and Jerry Maguire in him too. Of course, what you're really seeing in all of these characters, is Cameron Crowe himself.

Not everyone loves Crowe's movies, but that's life. The best you can do as an artist is be authentic. When you're truthful and real, there'll still be people that hate you; but there'll be people who absolutely and completely love you, too. 'Say Anything', 'Jerry Maguire' and 'Almost Famous' are among my favourite films of all time. To me, they're masterpieces.

What is it that I love about this guy's movies? It's simple: they make me feel alive. They remind me of the simple joys of life. You feel it when William Miller is contemplating going to Morrocco for a year, and you feel it when Jerry Maguire is shoplifting the pootie. And you feel it in 'We Bought A Zoo' when Benjamin (Matt Damon) and Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson) are exchanging glances. In fact, there's a beautiful moment when Damon's character is simply telling Kelly to "go home", because she's been working too hard. The text of the scene isn't romantic, but the scene is positively ALIVE! Makes you want to run out into the streets and find someone adorable just so you can make a connection happen. Life is about the connections, it's about feeling those subtle flows and big booms in your heart, but we forget this; we go years without it. Cameron Crowe reminds us of who we are, and how we felt once.

There was a time when I thought Cameron Crowe was only capable of masterpieces. Turns out, it's not true -- he is human after all. The truth is, 'Elizabethtown' was uneven and strange and didn't always ring true. But then again, some bits of it were magical and transcendent. That's the thing about Crowe - he stays true to who he is. As he seques into family-comedy with 'We Bought A Zoo' you could be forgiven for thinking he's sold out, or been downgraded from auteur to studio-fluff-director. But that's not what this is.

So what IS IT?

It's a little piece of magic, is what it is. It currently sits at 7.3 on IMDB. And that's probably fair. It's not a masterpiece--- but what it does have, is a beating heart. Like I said before, his work makes you feel alive. The nuanced characters and the joyful little life moments--- NO-ONE does them like Crowe. Just seeing a clip of a Cameron Crowe character waving goodbye to someone can sometimes send me spiralling upwards into full joy that lasts for days. If you wonder what I mean by a Cameron Crowe character waving, watch the trailer from 0.38-0.43 -- it's those moments, they kill me, in the best possible way. I can't even explain it, it's just one element of the many many tiny little elements that make Cameron Crowe movies fantastic.

'We Bought A Zoo' is sweet, heartwarming and life-affirming. It's a family-comedy that doesn't try to be anything more or anything less than what it is. Cameron Crowe has a distinct artistic voice, and this film is a worthy addition to his body of work which has had a huge hand in shaping my artistic sensibilities as a writer and director. For Cameron Crowe, 'We Bought A Zoo' proves, It's all happening, still.

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Life.

If I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo; you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and The Pope, sexual orientation, the whole works right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel.

You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling--- seen that. If I ask you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times.... but you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right? "Once more into the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap, watched him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes ---- feeling like God put an angel on Earth just for you, who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much.

I look at you; I don't see an intelligent, confident man. I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart. You're an orphan right? -- You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally... I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some fuckin' book --- Unless you want to talk about YOU, who you are. Then I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't want to do that do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say.

Your move, chief.

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Green Zone, Iraq, and Privilege.

I saw GREEN ZONE yesterday and it really stirred something up in me. Iraq, I hate to say, hadn't always meant a great deal to me. It was this thing that happened, but seven years have gone by and I'm more likely to discuss my favorite yogurt flavors than talk about Iraq. But recently; I've been thinking about it. There were no WMD's. We all know this but I keep repeating it to myself. There were no WMD's. They were the reason we went there! We, as in, my people, my nation. I say we because I feel a sense of accountability-- our actions did a lot over there and it's questionnable how much was good.

It's amazing how I know so little about the ins and the outs of the conflict. It's a privilege I've been afforded due to where I was born that I don't have to worry about nightly bombings on my head. That same privilege has allowed me to change the channel when the news didn't interest me, to watch an episode of Friends rather than spend twenty minutes learning about the thousands and thousands of dead and displaced Iraqi citizens. We did that. Our nations, our part of the world. Whether we're pro war, anti war or apathetic; those choices are privileges we have that people in Iraq didn't get to have.

When watching Green Zone, these things really hit me. Seeing a perplexed Matt Damon running around wondering where all the WMDs were; it brought forward the insanity of it all. An insanity which I already knew but had seldom settled on, probably because I was watching episodes of Entourage.

There are a few lingering master shots in GREEN ZONE, I remember one right near the end; we see the town, aircraft overhead; and building after building exploding. By really focusing on the truth of what I was seeing, it really bothered me, really made me realise how lucky I am in my life.

The crazy thing is seeing the division within the Allied American Units. Not only was there a war with Iraq, there were plenty of wars within the Western forces. The film is fictional, in part, so the specifics may not be exact-- but my guess is that it's pretty accurate. We only have to look at Hurricane Katrina or the Haiti disaster to see how a bunch of agencies who are all there to do good, end up squabbling and fighting; causing unneccesary stress on a situation. Put that into a conflict situation, and the implications are even more frightening. Within the concept of 'us versus them', inside of 'us' are a whole lot more of 'us and them's'.

This blog isn't really about Green Zone and it isn't really about Foreign Policy or politics or warfare. It's just me, a Film guy who doesn't know much about Iraq, finally realizing my country played a huge part in what went down. And whilst some good was done and necessary things acheived - there's a lot that concerns me, that I feel accountable for as a citizen of my country. The privilege of being English, or American, is that we can choose to be uninformed, or to indulge in what our media tells us. And I guess I'm just realizing my responsibility, as a human being: I need to care more.

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