Cameron Crowe has NOT had a good go of it since Almost Famous, his greatest film. I mean, no one’s clamoring for an Aloha 2, or more Elizabethtown tennis. However, the first 12 years of his career Crowe gave the world some amazing movies, memes, and lines, including this, this, and this. It all culminates for him with Almost Famous. He pulls from his personal experiences as a music writer for Rolling Stone to create an amazing enriching story about coming of age during the age of rock and roll.
William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is graduating 3 years early from high school because his mother Elaine (Frances McDormand) pushed him to do so, so he could learn things and have a few years to himself to do whatever he wanted. William takes after his sister, Anita (Zooey Deschanel), who taught him to love rock and roll; therefore, the 15 year old, after some advice from his mentor Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), decides to become a music writer for Rolling Stone. He covers the band Stillwater, led by superstar guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) and lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee). While trying to become a respected writer, William also encounters what goes on behind the scenes for a band on the rise, including the Band-Aides, a group of women helping influence the music, led by Penny Lane (Kate Hudson).
Almost Famous’s greatest feat is that it completely immerses you into what life is like during a group’s rise from obscurity to (hopefully) musical legends. We see all aspects of what goes on. Band conflicts and fissures form from something as simple as a poorly printed T-shirt, but then can be sweetly rectified over a shared chorus of Tiny Dancer. Financially, we see how an incident at an Arizona concert can lead to a manager switch to get back the money lost on that show which leads to a very amusing plane turbulence confessional. The band’s creative journey gets some of the biggest laughs, with a Topeka house party taking center stage for Cameron Crowe to write some of his trademark amazing , quotable lines. The Band-Aids are the most interesting part of the story: through William’s eyes, we see how beautiful, dedicated, and prideful they are to their craft of helping create magic in the form of a song. We also see how the band can lose sight of that along the way to stardom, and start treating the girls like objects to be traded among different musical groups, even though they’re so influential on the creative process. And through all of this, William, the journalist is our blank entrypoint, taking it all in, and deciding which story he wants to write about Stillwater. That editorial discretion William has not only creates the central conflict in the story, but it provides Crowe a chance to give us a blank slate character (Fugit, who looks perfectly trusting and innocent) to decide for ourselves how we might write Stillwater’s story.
While the rock stuff is more flashy and front and center, alongside it we have multiple stories about growing up that are all pretty compelling. William’s coming of age story plays out the longest, earning its internal conflict of whether to skewer or praise Stillwater for Rolling Stone. Patrick Fugit grows into the role like his character, becoming more conflicted the more he learns, with Elaine helping him with his morality and Lester Bangs parenting him on the ways of rock and roll journalism. Russell Hammond has a lot of growing up to do. He thinks he’s there to teach William the ropes and convince him to write something good. However, he himself has let his personal standing get in the way of any form of empathy. There’s a great scene where Russell thinks he’s gonna school Elaine on the ways of the world, but Elaine is ready for Russel’s charm, and immediately schools him, getting him to stand up straight and say stuff like “Yes ma’am.” However, it’s Penny Lane that leaves the greatest impression: Kate Hudson’s breakout and probably best role. Her Penny at the start is a beautiful magnetic Band-Aid queen, immediately attaching herself to Russell to make him achieve greatness: a manic pixie dream girl. However, along the way, she develops feelings for him, and has to learn how to either let go or tell him plainly how she feels. It’s clear a messy breakup is coming, but Hudson completely nails how Penny would react, equally sweet and crushed. The 3 of them are all looking for something real, and are helped along the way by people (Elaine, Anita, Lester, sometimes each other) who help them grow and become that real they were looking for.
The more time you spend with Almost Famous, you understand why Frances McDormand, Zooey Deschanel, Jason Lee, and Philip Seymour Hoffman would take small roles to help out Cameron Crowe. The movie is a perfect blend of hyperrealistic situations with completely grounded emotions, basically Crowe’s wheelhouse. All they had to do was sit back, and watch the amazing lines come. Seriously. In the party scene alone, you’ll probably count multiple. I counted 11. See for yourself...