Let’s get this out of the way now: I’m a Cameron Crowe fan. The director has his critics. Most of his divisiveness comes down to the tone of his films, which some find wrongfully cheesy. I, on the other hand, find Crowe’s humanism endearing, never silly or phony. Somehow, when everyone else has drunk the cynical Kool Aid and acts too cool for school towards anything with a big heart, the director remains optimistic about life and (ugh) people. Crowe, who aims high to plant a big smile on your face, does so here more than competently. The surface-level concept of We Bought a Zoo is fairly ridiculous-sounding: Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) buys and decides to rebuild a broken-down zoo. I’m not sure how We Bought a Zoo differs from Dave Blank’s true life story, and while watching the film and even while writing about it at this very moment, I don’t care. The most important part of Crowe’s adaptation is that, every emotion felt genuine. The “getting the zoo back in shape!” serves as a metaphor for Mee attempting to rebuild his once happy family – heavy shit, right?

From Kate Hudson coining the term “Band-Aids” in Almost Famous to Mark Wahlberg realizing his dream of becoming the lead singer of Steel Dragon in Rock Star, the obsession with and adoration of various famous bands and musicians has been chronicled through many different films. Nick Hamm’s Killing Bono joins their ranks, telling the story of Neil McCormick (Ben Barnes) and his obsession with not just becoming a huge rock star, but doing so on his own terms without the help of his fellow schoolmates who also formed their own band…which happened to then go on and become U2. Neil is a dreamer so fixated on the idea of stardom and all the spoils that come with it that he does not seem to quite grasp what it takes to make that dream a reality. Dressing like David Bowie does not make you him and acting like you already are a rock star does not make you one. It is clear from the start that, although Neil has the passion, it is his brother Ivan (Robert Shehan) who has the talent. Neil launches his first in a series of decisions that sabotage not only his brother, but also himself, by telling Paul (Martin McCann), the lead singer of rival band The Hype, that despite his interest, Ivan would be staying with the family and performing in Neil’s band. This would normally boil down to nothing more than two garage bands fighting for top billing around local clubs in Dublin, but Paul [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

You’ve stumbled upon Circle of Jerks, our sporadically published, weekly feature in which we ask the questions that really matter to our writers and readers. It’s a time to take a break from our busy lives and revel in the one thing that we all share: a deep, passionate love of movies. If you have a question you’d like answered by the FSR readers and staff, send us an email at editors@filmschoolrejects.com. What movie universe would actually want to live in? Susan C.

Just over 3,000 films were released in the past ten years. Instead of sleeping, Neil and Cole (with the help of a supercomputer) whittle that list down to the best 1%.

Pirate Radio is a perfectly balanced comedy with a brilliant cast. Hard to believe it’s only Richard Curtis’s second film as director.

This week Josh Radde chimes in with a film that has more heart, more laughs, and better acting than 98% of all films – plus, the soundtrack is kickass. He also exposes his own love for the work of Cameron Crowe.

There are certain questions in life one puzzles over furiously. Today, we examine a tricky one by asking what the hell happened to Kate Hudson’s career? Cinema Sleuth is on the case.