the audience applauded

Memorable, crazy movie

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Pearl Jam is a great band, this movie covers a lot but somewhat disappointing. after the recent masterpiece documentary on the doors and the really good one about the foo fighters this one was kind of boring. the drummer switching which is interesting to fans was referred to in a short sequence without getting into it unlike the member changes in foo fighters who were really brave to bring them to interview in this one u felt like they wanted to ignore it, like they did something bad. also the movie was non linear and gave the viewer no sense of the time everything was happening and why for example the tour with Neil Young why pearl jam wasn't touring with Eddie Vedder. also in the Mike McCready sequence i was hoping for a mention of Mad Season the project he did with the late Lane Staley from Alice in Chains and a bit more of him in the movie like the Kurt Cobain mention. overall this could have been much better instead its an assembly of random stuff from the 20 year career of pearl jam which is nice but not as interesting as it should have been with hardly any conflicts were put on the table maybe that was needed so they can go on for another 10 years.

Unfortunately I cannot give a objective rating about this documentary, because I am a enormous Pearl Jam fan. So the positive feeling that I get when I think of Pearl Jam could influence my view on the documentary.But I do think that it is worth a watch! It is such an interesting and inspiring band that deserves the attention of the big public. The documentary takes you by the hand and shows you how the band started and which big events occurred in the career of the band. I surely contains a lot of footage that I haven't seen before. So that was a pleasant surprise.And when you already like Pearl Jam, I think you will appreciate the music even more in the future. So you should watch it definitely.

Pearl Jam Twenty (2011) **** (out of 4) Wonderful documentary from Cameron Crowe about the twenty years of Pearl Jam. Crowe talks about how he was living in Seattle when the entire grunge/alternative scene broke and from here on we see how the band came to be. Using interviews, archival footage and current concert footage, Crowe turns this into one of the better documentaries out there. We see the band starting out, rising to the top with the album Ten, taking on Ticketmaster, touring with Neil Young and then continue to try and make sure they stay true to themselves even when some of their fans started to question them. I was around 13 when the Seattle based rock really took off and I remember listening to Pearl Jam for a few years but then my music tastes started to change. I really haven't kept up with the band since then so one should keep that in mind as they read this but I thought the documentary was terrific. It really gave me a terrific idea of what the band is, who they wanted to be and it was great fun seeing their rise to fame and seeing how they almost broke up. I found Crowe's direction to be marvelous because a lot of times with these documentaries you have someone who doesn't know how to put all the footage together to make it entertaining. Concert footage is great. Interviews are great. Even television show clips are great. However, so many documentaries don't know how to put all the footage together but Crowe does a wonderful job and really delivers a film that even non-fans should enjoy. Even though I haven't followed the band in many years this documentary really made me want to rush out and buy their CDs and DVDs. I found the interviews to be extremely good and I liked the fact that Crowe didn't shy away from some of the darker moments in their twenty years. The documentary also covers some other groups from this Seattle era including the relationship between Pearl Jam and Nirvana. The suicide of Kurt Cobain is also covered and we get concert footage from the night of his death. Overall Crowe really has worked a mini miracle in bringing Pearl Jam's story to life. If someone like me enjoyed it so much I'm sure die-hard fans of the group will feel as if they're in Heaven.

Long time band confidante Cameron Crowe chooses a subject close to his heart to redeem for his iffy recent output and documents the history of Pearl Jam. As a summary of their career it covers all bases: Formation from Green River/Mother Love Bone, finding Vedder and their sound via Temple Of The Dog; massive instant success and the overexposure of both themselves and grunge as a whole and dealing with the fallout; battling Ticketmaster and falling record sales, and the tragedy of Rokslide and coming out of it as one of the most fan-revered stadium acts around. It's so busy scrambling to pack everything of note from twenty years into two hours it never really dwells on anything for a significant amount of time, and the band interviews are candid but never truly revealing. The early footage of a raging, furious live act are riveting and watching them work through all their troubles (interspersed with an amusing ironic nod to Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes simply wondering what the hell they're so miserable about) to come out the other side a euphoric success is pleasing, even if as a songwriting outfit they're a pale shadow of what they were on their first three albums. In summation, pleasing to the hardcore fan, but not really telling you anything you didn't already know; To the uninitiated you may appreciate the journey, but wonder what the hell all the fuss was about. 7.5/10