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Almost Famous
Release Date: January 26th 2001
Distributor: UIP
Certificate: 15
Starring: Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Jason Lee, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Zooey Deschanel
Director: Cameron Crowe
Running Time: 122 mins
Set in 1973, Cameron Crowe's latest film reflects one of the pivotal moments in the history of rock music, chronicling as it does the last months of rock as something slightly amateurish, before it exploded as a commercial industry and started to be marketed as such.
The story follows the amusing and poignant coming of age of 15-year-old William (Patrick Fugit), a music fan and self-styled rock critic, who is inspired by the seminal bands (The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin) of the time. When his love of music, discussions with gonzo-rock hack extraordinaire Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman - 'The Talented Mr. Ripley') and articles that he has written for his college paper, land him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and go on tour with up-and-coming band, Stillwater, William embarks on an eye-opening journey with the band despite the objections of his over-protective mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand - 'Fargo').
As William becomes less an observer and more a friend and participant in the band's adventures, the young reporter starts to lose his objectivity and his ability to tell his story honestly. Becoming friends with the lead guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), William falls in love with Penny Lane (Kate Hudson - '200 Cigarettes') a groupie (or as she and her friends say a 'band-aid') and Hammond's girlfriend, loses his virginity to a trio of Penny's friends (including Oscar winner Anna Paquin -'The Piano', 'The X-Men') and learns a life-changing lesson about the importance of family - the ones we are born with, and the ones we create.
Although already being hailed as a masterpiece after rave reviews at the Toronto film festival, and doing very well at the US box office, 'Almost Famous' is slightly self indulgent, as Crowe uses all his undeniable talent to showcase something which actually happened to him at the tender age of 15. The band that Crowe creates for the movie, Stillwater, are a tribute to all of the best (and worst) things about 70's rock, taking as they do a look which is somewhere between Led Zep, The Who and the Allman Brothers, and have a great front-man in Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee -'Chasing Amy', 'Dogma'). It is an affectionate movie, and it will appeal to an older audience, for whom the 70's rock showcase (and the excellent soundtrack) will be a nostalgia trip, but unlike DreamWorks last 'adult' themed movie, 'American Beauty', I'm not completely sure it will reach the younger filmgoers, but it deserves to be warmly appreciated as the film is an endearing record of a time when life was less complicated, and rock and roll filled everybody's thoughts.