Cameron Crowe Movies Ranked
8. The Union (2011)
This is such a fantastically well put together film that it seems unfitting of its quality to push it so far down this list, but we do so in the opinion that music documentaries – especially ones so self-congratulatory and specific to the tastes of its rather niche audience – are simply less able to tap into the zeitgeist as dramas and romances, and as such we cannot in good conscience place it above some of the pictures still to come. Even so, check this out if you’re an avid music fan or have a degree of appreciation for either of the men involved; it’s interesting and strangely uplifting.
7. Pearl Jam Twenty (2011)
Pearl Jam Twenty can be categorised in much the same way as the above listed The Union, and as such places higher on the list simply because of how Crowe manages to make the twenty years of Pearl Jam releasing music seem more universally impactful than the work in his Elton John piece. This is a film that’s better for fans than non-fans, and the film does contain the stench of a filmmaker doing something just to be considered a “cool middle-aged man”, but there is a lot to be learned and enjoyed in Twenty that makes overlooking this somewhat easier.
6. We Bought A Zoo (2011)
Based on the very true British story of a zoo opening against all the odds to universal appraisal, We Bought A Zoo is a very American tale about working hard to make something of yourself, yet it does a good enough job of steering clear of its truly cringe-worthy Americanisms to offer an uplifting film worthy of our times; a picture so solidly knitted to a pre-9/11 positivity that it was perhaps less well received than it may have been in another time or place, but was solid nonetheless.
