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Poster (c) Dreamworks
Cameron Crowe is Almost Famous. He’s not unknown, but you don’t hear buzz on the street: “Hey, did you hear that Cameron Crowe…” “I can’t wait until the next Cameron Crow film!” That’s pretty incidental, because his 2000 film Almost Famous is semiautobiographical. It’s not the most famous film from 2000 (in fact, it’s Almost Famous-I crack myself up), and it’s not the best film from 2000, but it’s a pretty good film from 2000.
If there’s a type of person I admire, it’s directors who write for themselves. It shows that they’re multi-talented and can do more than just one thing at a time. Crowe excels in both categories, although he doesn’t have a definite style to his direction, and his script doesn’t have any emotional punch; it’s just there, and when this movie’s done, nothing’s learned (except rock stars can’t be trusted, but we all already knew that), nothing’s gained, but an enjoyable character study for two hours.
Almost Famous is your typical boy-is-overshadowed-by-overprotective-mother-and-goes-on-tour-with-favorite-band-as-journalist story. The boy is William Miller (Patrick Fugit, in an impressive debut), fifteen, who writes for a semi-large magazine, and is called from Rolling Stone to write about his favorite up-and-coming band Stillwater. He gets more than he bargained for, including his love for a groupie (Kate Hudson), his inability to have a crucial interview with lead singer Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), and constant badgering from his mother Elaine (Frances McDormand).
I didn’t find the premise of the rock band very interesting (I only bought it because it came with American Beauty), but it was well made, and gives a (what I could guess) accurate depiction of the drug-addled 70’s, with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Although there isn’t much of the firs two, there are a lot of rock scenes, when Stillwater is performing, and they went on for too long.
The best part of Almost Famous is the acting, especially McDormand, even though she was wasted. She’s a great actress, but she never really has a chance to shine. Fugit does an impressive debut, and Crudup is good, and Jason Lee, who is also in the band, was very good. It’s hard for Lee to act badly. Almost Famous is almost a great movie, but it’s just good.
Rated R for language, drug content, and brief nudity.
Review Date: July 14, 2003