Pearl Jam Twenty (2011)

A documentary on the band Pearl Jam that marks their 20th anniversary in the year 2011.

Director:

Cameron Crowe

Writer:

Cameron Crowe

Stars:

Cameron Crowe, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cameron Crowe	...	Himself
Jeff Ament	...	Himself
Matt Cameron	...	Himself
Stone Gossard	...	Himself
Mike McCready	...	Himself
Eddie Vedder	...	Himself
Kenneth 'Boom' Gaspar	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jack Irons	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dave Krusen	...	Himself (archive footage)
Matt Chamberlain	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dave Abbruzzese	...	Himself (archive footage)
Chris Cornell	...	Himself
The U-Men	...	Themselves (archive footage)
Susan Silver	...	Herself (archive footage)
Mother Love Bone	...	Themselves (archive footage)

Storyline

A documentary on the band Pearl Jam that marks their 20th anniversary in the year 2011.

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Plot Keywords:

pearl jam | rock star | seattle washington | rock group | rock band | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Music

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [jp]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 October 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pearl Jam 20

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$102,448 (USA) (23 September 2011)

Gross:

$454,784 (USA) (30 September 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tremolo Productions, Vinyl Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min 120 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

When asked how he felt about the film, bassist Jeff Ament claimed he felt uncomfortable with how often he used profanity on camera.

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Goofs

Eddie Vedder dedicates a performance to Kurt Cobain and the date is given as "April 8th, 1994 - The Day Kurt Died". This may appear as a goof, as in some places it is mentioned that Kurt Cobain died on April 5th 1994.

Both dates are relevant: April 8th is the day Kurt Cobain was discovered dead. The coroner established that he had died on April 5th.

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Connections

Features It Happened at the World's Fair (1963)

User Reviews

A Nutshell Review: Pearl Jam 20

I have to admit I'm not what you will call a fanatical worshipper of Pearl Jam's music enough to compel me to watch what would be THE documentary this season with a single session, simultaneous screening around the world where PJ fans will likely already have made a beeline for. Instead, I'm a bigger fan of writer-director Cameron Crowe than the subject matter of his documentary (ok, so this sounds a little bit blasphemous), given that it's been years since we last saw a Cameron Crowe film hit the theatres, although that wait will soon be over by the end of this year with the release of We Bought a Zoo.

Pearl Jam 20 chronicles the beginnings of the band back in the year 1989 where Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard came together after the demise of their band Mother Love Bone, and like all successful bands that came before it, was subjected to recruiting and changing of members until the perfect chemistry was achieved, culminating with frontman Eddie Vedder, with his distinct growling voice, joining the band, and together put alternative grunge music on the radar of music everywhere. Sure there were many others in the same vein since the 90s was the era where this sound had taken the world by storm, with what would possibly be the largest rivals to Nirvana before Kurt Cobain's passing.

You can probably read a lot more details on the band from its Wikipage, and Cameron Crowe's film digs through large treasure troves of archival footage from television newsreels to more independent, off the cuff capture of the band's early years, that we get to witness the second earliest band performance ever and plenty of other home made videos that expectedly get pixelated for the big screen. Crowe's background as a music journalist being a tremendous factor in the crafting of this film, where in lesser hands would have been relegated to the standard talking heads interviews, and to stuff the film with chock full of music videos and live performances from the band's tours around the world.

Instead, Crowe provides the narration, and shares interesting nuggets of information through what would be a largely chronological format without overwhelmingly bombarding the audience with too much information. Being on close terms with all the band members and collaborators also allowed for unfettered access to more intimate and honest interview answers, with the utilizing of milestones in the band's career to timestamp the feature, including their courtroom lawsuit with Ticketmaster. But with everything crammed into two hours, expect some areas of focus to be skimmed through as Crowe paced his documentary at breakneck speed to cover as much ground as possible, mixing it up quite a bit with comedy, pathos, and allowing the many visuals both moving and static to breathe and tell a story.

It's about the capture of a phase of growing up, where looking around I see folks around my age group (or older) who had grown with the band in the 90s when we were in our teens where music played a large part in our lives, as we shift through the sands of time with the identification of many songs from the band's discography, where I didn't even realize that Daughter was supposed to be called Brother initially, and listening to Vedder actually sing it that way during a practice on the tour bus, is reason enough amongst others why fans just have to watch this, and perhaps reminisce the times where they had seen their idols perform on stage during one of the many concert tours done worldwide at the peak of their popularity.

And that is if a theatrical release gets secured soon, which I suspect would be the case given the sold out, one off screening. Watch for it!