Almost Famous

UK Release Date. 26 January 2001
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 2 mins
Director. Cameron Crowe
Cast. Billy Crudup, Zooey Deschanel, Patrick Fugit, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Frances McDormand, Noah Taylor.
Rating. 79%

Review.

With Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe, director of Say Anything…, Singles and Jerry Maguire, tapped into his years as a young music journalist to create perhaps his most personal film. Crowe began his career as a teenage music journalist for Rolling Stone magazine, touring with the Allman Brothers when he was just 16 years old. Impressively, he secured interviews with bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin and The Eagles.

Patrick Fugit stars as the director’s surrogate - 15-year-old music critic William Miller - who finds himself on the road covering the fictional band Stillwater for Rolling Stone magazine. Thrown head first into the 1970s rock and roll scene, he embarks on a journey into adulthood aided by the beautiful, magnetic, ephemeral groupie Penny Lane (Kate Hudson, in her breakout role). Crowe catches details perfectly - from the brilliant opening montage to the sleeping band stills modelled after old Rolling Stone magazine photographs.

Crowe won an Academy Award for his wonderfully written, exquisite screenplay (Best Original Screenplay), which is packed full of memorable lines and glorious characters - Philip Seymour Hoffman as legendary rock critic Lester Bangs, Billy Crudup as the band’s guitarist Russell Hammond, Jason Lee as the lead singer Jeff Bebe and Frances McDormand as William’s mother, Elaine Miller.

Fuelled by an unashamed and untarnished love of music, Almost Famous captures the sentimental qualities of a song, when a memory attaches itself to a piece of music and can be instantly recalled through a simple needle drop. The sequence on the Stillwater bus, a joyous and infectious singalong to Elton John’s Tiny Dancer the morning after the band’s ugliest reckoning, is the most celebrated in the film for good reason. 

Inevitably, the good times come with a hangover. The band’s increasing conflicts challenge William’s idealism and force him to take responsibility for who he is. The lesson for William is learning how difficult it can be to get any distance from his own fandom, especially when embedded in the most seductive world imaginable. Whilst the audience may expect the young and impressionable William to be eaten alive by the rock scene, he proves that growing up doesn’t mean becoming a cynic; sometimes, the most mature thing is to protect your sincerity and hope.

Almost Famous is many things at once - a bittersweet coming-of-age story, an exceptionally vivid evocation of mid 1970s rock culture, and a love letter to music itself - but at its core, its as much a film about journalism as All The President’s Men or Spotlight, even if what’s being written about isn’t as consequential as the Watergate scandal or an investigation concerning paedophilic priests.

Deeply personal yet universally relatable, Almost Famous is undoubtedly Cameron Crowe’s best film.