Almost Famous

One thing that always drives me nuts is when people say "They don't make them like they used to." It usually drives me nuts because I've said it enough, and I realize I sound like a pretentious dolt when saying it.  You know, that feeling you get when you say "Yeah, I saw the movie, but the book was much better." I stand by that statement still.  So anyway, that's my lead in. I grew up listening to the classic rock groups, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, any number of other bands I'm forgetting as I write this at 2 in the morning. The late 1960s and early 1970s were a heyday for these great rock groups.

In one of the best examples I can think of that captures a time and an era in history, 2000's Almost Famous could serve as a blueprint for how to make a coming of age, rock and roll movie. For some reason, this movie slipped past me over the last 10 years, and I'm only now catching up with it.  Well worth the wait.  This is a movie that is a lot of things, doing all those things well.  It is a coming of age story. It's a fictional, almost documentary look at a fictional mid-level rock band in 1973. It is about friendships, relationships, love, maturing, and without sounding too incredibly cliched, just living life.

A highly intelligent high schooler and a huge fan of rock-n-roll, 15-year old William Miller (Patrick Fugit) has landed his dream job. After writing a few stories for an underground rock magazine, William is offered a job that pays $700, requiring him to write a story about mid-level and possibly up and coming rock band, Stillwater, as they go on their summer tour, the Almost Famous tour, in the spring of 1973. He's told to just write an honest story, write what he sees and hears.  William goes along with it, quickly being welcomed onto the tour by the group with open arms, especially lead guitarist Russell Hampton (Billy Crudup) and frontman Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee). He's not quite sure how to read the group though. Are they using him so he'll write a favorable story, or do they genuinely look at him as a friend? That's just a start for the teenager, who also falls madly in love with Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), not a groupie, but a band-aid. Can he figure it all out in time?

With just 10 titles to his name, director Cameron Crowe has nonetheless carved a name for himself in Hollywood with an ability to make very personable, very relateable stories. Above all else, that's where this movie succeeds, or at least for me it did. It is a coming of age story that doesn't smash you over the head with a message. William is a really smart kid, but he's also naive, impressionable, and just looking to be accepted, to be one of the group.  Fugit does a great job keeping this main character grounded in this turbulent world he's thrown into.  He is the viewer, experiencing all the craziness and trying to handle it all in stride.  Is he getting played, or is Stillwater genuinely looking out for him? Or could it be both?

Part of the fun was this quasi-documentary movie of a 1970s rock group and all the touring, the partying, the excess that was a part of everyday life for these musicians.  For one, the look of the movie is right, the bad haircuts, the even worse facial hair, the clothes, everything is right on target.  With this fictional band, we get an inside look at the inner workings of a moderately successful rock group, the in-fighting, the bonding, the performances that bring them all together.  Think of any episode of VH1's Behind the Music, and you've got the drama levels for the fictional Stillwater. The soundtrack is solid too, using plenty of 70s rock without overdoing it.  There's also some underplayed digs at Zeppelin, Bowie, Dylan, the Stones (especially Mick Jagger) that produce some good laughs.  It never goes too cliched though or too far down the spoof road, maintaining a level of seriousness through all the craziness.

Almost Famous is a good example of how great an ensemble cast can be when it's clicking on all cylinders, and Crowe gets winning performances out of the whole group. Crudup is the high point, the scene-stealer as Russell Hammond, Stillwater's lead guitarist and possible breakout star.  He's the one William is drawn to right away, and it's easy to see why. Crudup makes a character that would have been easy to hate incredibly personable.  Hudson earned an Oscar nomination for her Penny Lane part, the mysterious non-groupie searching for some sort of reality in her life whether she realizes it or not. Always a scene stealer herself, Frances McDormand is just that as William's mother, Elaine, trying to look out for her son while also allowing him to grow up on his own.  A favorite actor of mine, Philip Seymour Hoffman nails his small part as Lester Bangs, a rock journalist who ends up becoming a mentor to William in his adventures and how to handle the job.

Those are just some of the names from this incredibly deep cast.  Here's just a few more.  Lee plays Jeff Bebe, Stillwater lead singer who wavers between the money and the message, Zooey Deschanel as William's sister trying to rebel in her own way, Noah Taylor as Stillwater's on-tour manager, Anna Paquin and Fairzua Balk as two band-aid/groupies, and Jimmy Fallon as a manager sent out to help the group from the record company. I don't know what else to say. It's one of those movies that is just hard not to like.  It is an enjoyable story with drama and comedy, a great cast, a great soundtrack, and believable, interesting characters.  Hard to beat that combination.

Almost Famous <---trailer (2000): *** 1/2 /****