IMDb top 250: -
Rating 9/10
Director: Cameron Crowe
Writers: Cameron Crowe
Starring: Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Anna Paquin, Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit, Jason Lee & Philip Seymour Hoffman
"And you can tell Rolling Stone magazine that my last words were... I'm on drugs!"
William Miller (Fugit) is a 15 year old aspiring music journalist, who has a rebellious sister who gets him into rock music and a strict conservative mother who thinks rock music is the root of all evil which leads to drugs and promiscuous sex. After writing a few well received articles William is contacted by the editor of Rolling Stone magazine to write a piece on up and coming band Stillwater, to travel on the road with them and get a story worthy of the front page. Whilst on tour with the band William gets to know head Band Aid (Groupie) Penny Lane (Hudson) and he falls in love with her.
I have a huge love for music, not just the singers or groups but the songs, the sounds and the lyrics and this is what I get from this movie. Crowe has a love for the MUSIC. The film is a semi-autobiographical look at Crowe's younger years when he travelled with bands like The Who whilst writing for Rolling Stone magazine. Whilst I wasn't born in the 70's from the various documentaries I've seen and books I've read, to me, Crowe has got the feeling, look and sound of the 70's down. The soundtrack is awesome and has my favourite Elton John song "Tiny Dancer" slap bang in the middle of the movie during a great scene, but in every scene there is some amazing song playing in the background.
The Oscar winning script is superb, it's funny and moving and joyous and sad. Most of the best lines belong to Frances McDormand's overbearing mother Elaine but everybody gets their time to shine with some great dialogue. Frances McDormand does kind of steal the show; her Oscar nominated performance is hilarious and very relatable to anybody who has parent(s) that won't just let them be who THEY want to be. This is not the case for me, but I have friends who have parents like this!
Billy Crudup and Jason Lee, the central guys in the Stillwater band are both excellent and have some great scenes together, especially the turbulent flight scene which has an hilarious ending. Kate Hudson brings depth to what could have been a really floaty and limiting role, whilst Penny is mostly carefree Hudson brings a lot of vulnerability to it with her emotive eyes and facial expressions; she really does a beautiful job. I adore Fairuza Balk as Sapphire, she really gets that carefree, fun loving character.
I haven't seen the movie in a while and it was fun to see how many people are in it who are now big stars; Anna Paquin, Jay Baruchel, Jimmy Fallon and Eric Stonestreet to name a few. Almost Famous is a great coming of age story written by someone who really gets music and how it can make you feel and the soundtrack really is AMAZING.
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