I was born too late to have enjoyed the heyday of rock and roll. When I was growing up, The Beatles had broken up, Brian Wilson had confined himself to bed and Dylan had already gotten Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde out of his system. I was left with a pack of followers who slowly managed to turn rock music from a visceral rebellion into corporate glitz and big hair. I grew up in a time in which "they" declared rock dead. It wasn’t the first time, and it certainly won’t be the last.

Writer/Director Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous focuses on just such a time. The sixties were over, leaving popular music to wander, slowly evolving into new genres and subgenera. Before the evolution was complete and bands such as the Clash could be born, rock had to work through its growing pains. Crowe offers us a semi-autobiographical look into a world where quasi-celebrities, in an attempt to burst out of the shadows of the past legends, are caught somewhere between reaching for the stars and keeping their heads above water.

The story follows William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a fifteen-year-old reporter for Rolling Stone who is following a middle-of-the-road band named Stillwater for his first big piece. Based on Crowe’s own experiences, William travels the country initially to simply write an honest piece on the band and launch his career. Nevermind the underlying desire to escape his over-protective college professor mother (portrayed with near perfection by Frances McDormand).

Early on, he meets Penny Lane (Kate Hudson); a supposed hardened groupie who only seeks love. However, William quickly finds himself being seduced by the superficial glamour of the lifestyle and he is caught between the truth and a desire to be cool. Most of all he is seduced by Penny’s hidden fragility. Almost Famous hits every note perfectly, like a well produced Phil Spector song. The writing is crisp and funny, the direction tender and reverential. However, it is the strong cast, which includes Billy Crudup, Jason Lee, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, that gives the story life.

Almost Famous may be the first film to portray the early seventies rock scene accurately. Moreover, it embodies the healing, spiritual powers of music. When you move beyond the notes, melodies and instruments, a good song is a feeling, a moment crystallized by an enveloping emotion with which mere words cannot compete. Feel flows. What do you like about music? What do I like about music? Everything.

Gary O'Brien (DPAMac)
Originally published in Movie
Review Weekly © Gary O'Brien 2001