Almost Famous

A

Almost Famous is an almost true story about the writer and director, Cameron Crowe, a whiz kid music journalist who wrote a cover story for Rolling Stone at the ripe old age of 18. He has amalgamated a lot of his experiences and changed the names around, but much of this is just too good not to be true. The main character is a great fan of rock during the early 70's and also a music journalist. An ambitious kid, he sends articles he has written for the school paper to a music critic for Creem magazine. The critic knows talent when he sees it and encourages the kid to continue writing, even paying him for small articles. I don't want to give away too much but through an almost Forrest Gump series of possible events he winds up touring with one of the hottest bands in the country, the fictional band Stillwater (based loosely on the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and Peter Frampton who Crowe actually covered as a teenager), as a sort of live-in journalist.

There are great performances throughout. William captures the innocence, honesty, and intensity that had to have been necessary for this to come about. Frances McDormand is perfect as a single mother who is at once tyrannically strict and protective while at the same time she drops the kid off at a rock concert and then lets him travel on the road for weeks with the band. There are a couple of band groupies who see themselves as modern day muses to the band. And finally there is the band itself: an idealistic group of rockers making it big just as their genre is dying out.

The story and writing are absolutely first rate. Crowe not only has an understanding of the musicians but also a real love of that music and admiration for the people that make it. That makes it possible to present a realistic and charming story that stays in the middle ground between cynicism and idealism. More serious than Spinal Tap, with more of a story than Dazed and Confused, the movie borrows heavily from both. It's a winning combination.

I give it an A.

Back to Index