Almost Famous
April 2001 Reviewed by: Wes Marshall Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

High school student William Miller (Patrick Fugit) loves music and wants to be a rock-and-roll writer. He starts with the school newspapers, goes on to the undergrounds, then wrangles his way onto Lester Bangs’ roster at Creem. While trying to review a Black Sabbath concert, he can’t get past the doorman, who tosses William out and tells him to stand with the groupies. Enter Penny Lane (Kate Hudson). When William asserts he is a journalist not a groupie, she blazes back, "We are not groupies . . . Groupies sleep with rock stars because they want to be near someone famous. We’re here because of the music. We are Band-Aids." With help from Penny Lane, the leading Band-Aid, William easily ends up falling in with fictional rock band Stillwater (loosely based on the Allman Brothers Band). Rolling Stone sees his work and, sight unseen, asks him to work for them. His pitch -- follow Stillwater on tour so that he may gather enough insider information for a feature article on the band. At fifteen years old, William Miller (who is, by the way, an alter ego for director Cameron Crowe), hits the road with Stillwater, the Band-Aids and their entourage. What follows is one of the most beautifully scripted, directed and acted coming-of-age films I’ve ever seen.

The entire cast is strong, but Kate Hudson steals the show. If you want to know why she got nominated for the Academy Award, watch Chapter 17, from 1:22:11 to 1:22:56. This is forty-five seconds of sheer perfection, acting as good as you will ever see. Mother Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, the person Kate affectionately calls "Pa," should be enormously proud. Her acting talent is the best type -- invisible. She simply melts into the character but, at the same time, she is charming and magnetic. I was totally smitten.

Francis McDormand, also Oscar nominated for her role, plays Elaine Miller, a fiercely protective but totally trusting Mom, one who will take her son to a Black Sabbath concert, but then warn him loud enough so that everyone can hear, "DON’T TAKE DRUGS!" Patrick Fugit gets just the right mix of naiveté and iron-willed aspiration to cover the music he loves. And his puppy-love looks ring totally true. Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Magnolia) as Lester Bangs gets some of the film’s best lines, such as when he warns William that,

"You CANNOT make friends with the rock stars. That's what's important. If you're a rock journalist -- first, you will never get paid much. But you will get free records from the record company. And they'll buy you drinks, you'll meet girls, they'll try to fly you places for free, offer you drugs . . . I know. It sounds great. But they are not your friends. These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of the rock stars, and they will ruin rock and roll and strangle everything we love about it."

Stillwater’s members are all just fine. While Billy Crudup’s version of Gregg Allman is a smidge too "actorly," Jason Lee as lead singer Jeff Bebe gets more to the heart of the vapid rock star that Lester Bangs warns of.

Both the picture and sound are right up there with the best of current day standards. I scored them at a four rating only because there is nothing to draw attention to the quality of either one. They are simply natural and lifelike. The only exception is they boosted the bass on the backing music. Extras include HBO’s "The Making of Almost Famous", copies of Crowe’s articles for Rolling Stone, trailers, cast bios and a music video by Stillwater.

Cameron Crowe never has to make another film to convince me of his preeminence as both a writer and director. His ability to shape poignant moments in Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous is astonishing. For this film, he had to be tempted to glamorize William. I mean, Crowe is basically writing his own life story, and memories sometimes attain a Technicolor glow after the fact. Instead, he showers his affection on everyone in the movie equally. He has an uncanny ability to make us laugh while we’re crying, or cry while we’re laughing. He has frequently stated that his favorite movies make him sad and happy at the same time. That is exactly what he delivers. As befits a movie by a music journalist, the backing music is perfect. What an inspired collection of music, especially the use of "Feel Flows" by the Beach Boys for the end credits, (nice touch: stick with the credits until the end when you hear the fade out groove of the record, followed by the tonearm lifting off.) Cameron Crowe says in the "Behind-The-Scenes Featurette", "My goal was to write a love letter back to the music." Almost Famous is more like a big French kiss.

The DVD package says "Over 150 Critics Agree: ONE OF THE TOP 10 FILMS OF THE YEAR." Make that 151.

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