Crowe pre 'Jerry Maguire' gives us a charming look at the twisted lives and loves of Seattle's single scene. The traditional elements of a Cameron Crowe film are all here - complex yet amenable characters suffering from emotional insecurity and idealism, whose personal and professional lives take many twists and turns. Full of charm, humour and good performances, 'Singles' is an entertaining antecedent of Crowe's more mature films of recent times.
This will bring you right into the Seattle grunge scene of the 90's. Hilarious and great music!!! A great Cameron Crowe movie. The soundtrack is really good!
I was expecting this to be something I loved... it isn't. The whole film feels undernurtured, uninspired and dragged out. There are no interesting characters to latch onto and the comedy falls flat more often than not.
Bailey: "Tonight I'll be the super me. Steve: What if the super you meets the super her and the super her rejects the super you? Bailey: Then it's no problem. Steve: Uh-huh. Why? Bailey: Because it was never you, it was just an act. I live my life like a French movie, Steve."
A disarmingly clever and sweet-spirited comedy, Singles - Cameron Crowe's second film, three years after Say Anything... - was the first film to put a new spin on the boy-meets-girl formula. When the young romantic couples in this film break up, they don't get mad at each other or indulge in a series of insults and attempts to make their lives miserable. They simply go from being lovers to being friends - and it's often hard to tell the difference. That's what Singles is about: a generation so self-protective it has come to see love as just another style of friendship - as interaction plus cuddling.
While Say Anything... was arguably the loveliest youth comedy of its decade, full of true, delicate, layered emotionalism, in Singles Crowe expanded his focus to include six characters in their early to mid-'20s, most of whom live in the same horseshoe-shaped apartment complex in Seattle, the new capital of middle-class bohemian chic. The surprise is that Singles is even slighter than Say Anything... was. Crowe may be a director in danger of having too much affection for his characters. He likes them so much, he minimizes their conflicts; he doesn't want to see them hurt. Still, he has such a perceptive eye for detail and a genuine, singular wit. Singles often comes close to being a TV show (Twentysomethings, perhaps), but it's a clever and infectious comedy of manners.
Honest performances, great writing and a kick-ass soundtrack make this film more than just a romantic comedy about finding true love. Crowe has a unique ability as a writer/director to mix the right song with the right dialogue to create lovely, funny and heartbreaking cinema moments. Kyra Sedgwick, Scott Campbell, Bridget Fonda and Matt Dillon are perfectly cast, bringing their own unique touches to characters that could have been clichéd, yet come across as distinctly original. The film is separated into acts, breaking up the two main relationships into the various actions and conversations that either bring the lovers together or tear them apart.
The Sedgwick/Scott pairing is the more serious, taking their instant attraction onto a bumpy life road neither of them is prepared to deal with. They give the film heart and hope, showing that there really is someone out there for everyone and that sometimes you have to fight for happiness. On the other hand, Fonda and Dillon are the poster children for the old adage opposites attract. He's a wild, womanizing, wannabe rock star; she's a simple, sweet girl who just wants to be loved. When she stops being a doormat and begins to realize her own dreams, she gives him a reason to not only miss her, but respect her as well. Her conversion from desperate to confident is a wonderful example to women everywhere that you don't need a man to be happy with yourself or your life. That her lack of interest eventually turns Dillon into a worthwhile boyfriend stretches belief, but it does make for a happier ending.
Singles received a fair amount of publicity because of its links to the indigenous Seattle grunge-rock scene. Yet it's far from being any sort of cutting-edge slice of Rock & Roll life. Given its nightclub settings, the film and the characters could have used some more raunch but then again, except for Cliff, they're not meant to be spiky, into-the-night types - they're basically polite, stylish young people. What marks them as '90s bohemians is their casual communalism. They're like overgrown teenagers, blithely exchanging partners as if love were a high school square dance and at the same time, they've grown up in a world where romance is shot through with cynicism and fear. And so they're too wary to let themselves be overwhelmed. Crowe has caught their spirit - the cooled-out passion of those who can long for love without being ruled by it. An intelligent look at relationships that never gets old.
Besides, you can't go wrong with a film that has Eddie Vedder (in a cameo as one of the members of Cliff's band, "Citizen Dick", along with Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam) and Tim Burton (as a next big Avant-garde director who makes a living shooting dating videos) in it.
In my opinion this might be the first chick flick for guys. It was in the midst of the grunge scene, and where better to have a lost story set during that time than in Seattle?
At first I thought this movie was worthless, but I watched it again and it was somewhat entertaining, it actually had a plausible storyline with a dramatic flare.
A great romantic, comedy, rock movie. Cameron Crowe has a great way of just letting the dialogue flow. And if your a fan of grunge music you'll want to see this. contains cameos of Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell, Mark Arm. The movie deals with single people trying to fine "the one", sounds like a chick flick, but it is a good movie for the guys to watch on thier own as well. Every actor deserves a lot of credit for thier performance.
One of the best soundtracks in a movie. This is an early 90's classic, much like "Reality Bites" it displays the waster lifestyle in all its glory. With appearances from "Alice in Chains" and Eddie Vedder from "Pearl Jam" this is a grunge-fest that c...(read more)an easily be enjoyed.
Eric Stoltz is so good at what he does, I can't believe we don't see him more often. This is a movie I saw only because of him, Piven & Pullman. I also like Sedgwick, she's cool.
Interesting take on being single and the crap single people go to for love and relationships. I loved the all star cast (although then they were virtual unknowns).
I love this movie. I watch it before and after every relationship, which is often. It makes sense because we've all experienced it. It's like one of you goes out for the paper and never comes back.
my galpals and i all agree that this is 'the predecessor' to the reality-bite's-ish genre. one word for this movie... witty. i like the fact that it's less 'angsty' vis-a-vis that of other flics succeeding it. what can i say... i got hooked with the earrings. *wink
Writer/director Cameron Crowe's follow-up to his terrific debut "Say Anything..." is unfortunately a disappointment. It isn't as lively or insightful as it should have been; in fact it was a bit boring at times. Luckily the cast all give really good performances and there are some witty moments.
Once I was out of high school I saw this movie my first year in college and I loved it. It was funny. It was cool. The soundtrack ruled. One of Cameron Crowe's best films.
Being that I was in college during grunge's glory years, I seriously identified with this movie, even though I've never been to Seattle. Worth watching to see early performances and music from the icons of grunge, including a cool live scene with Alice in Chains. Even Pearl Jam makes a cameo.
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