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My Favorite Live Album Doesn’t Exist — but the Movie Does
Begin Again is a 2013 film by director John Carney that follows disgraced record producer Dan Mulligan (Mark Ruffalo) who discovers songwriter Gretta James (Keira Knightley) after she gets romantically and creatively trampled by her fame-hungry ex Dave Kohl (Adam Levine).
Other cast highlights include James Cordon as Gretta’s friend and hype man Steve, Hailee Steinfeld as Dan’s teenage daughter Violet, and brief cameos by Cee Lo Green as a rapper named Troublegum.
After getting fired by his partner at the record label, Saul (played by rapper Mos Def), Dan experiences a strike of creative genius and convinces Gretta that they should record her album outside in NYC.
Dan: Let’s record an album. Every song we do in a different location, right? All over New York City. And we do it through the summer, and it becomes this tribute to this beautiful, goddamn crazy, fractured mess of a city, New York.
They wrangle together a group of musicians who don’t mind getting paid after the fact — a teenage violin prodigy and his cellist playing sister, a pianist from a children’s ballet class, Gretta’s friend Steve, a couple of Troublegum’s pals, and even an appearance by Violet on bass.
