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Almost Famous
***1/2
Cinema Releases - February 9, 2001
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. 123
minutes. Written and directed by Cameron Crowe. Starring Patrick Fugit, Billy
Crudup, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Jason Lee, Zooey Deeschanel, Philip
Seymour Hofman.
"Hey hey, my my, rock and roll can never die;
there's more to the picture that meets the eye… hey hey, my
my!"
Breezing along with the humour and semi-profundity
of that there Neil Young lyric, Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous"
is a beautiful experience. In a week of good movies, this is clearly
the best, charged with nostalgic poignancy and sweet character
portrayals.
It's a highly autobiographical piece of fiction
for writer-director Crowe, telling the story of William Miller (Patrick Fugit),
a quiet but savvy young kid who writes music reviews for his high school
paper, regularly mails them to magazine offices, and ends up getting an
assignment from Rolling Stone. Unaware of his age, the editor gives him a
ring and sends him to follow a rapidly rising band called Stillwater on its
first national tour.
"Almost Famous" has an acute sense of time and
place, wonderful music, and, most importantly, the powerful humanity of any
great memoir. William is a good hero for the piece, a fairly naïve but
smart and good-hearted youngster whose eyes we trust as our guide for the
journey. Crowe manages to capture the excitement we feel when we're young
and inexperienced and first coming into contact with cool environments --
there's a remarkably powerful little scene early on, after William's older
sister leaves their restrictively Christian home, he starts listening to
the records she left for him, and we can feel the fresh air rushing in. And
later, of course, there's the thrill of teenage William being plunged into
the middle of the rock world.
The balance of excitement and disillusionment
William feels as his journey progresses is a potent and appropriate feel
for the movie, skilfully realised through the characters. There's a teenage
groupie he falls in love with known as Penny Lane, played by Kate Hudson
as to seem too uncertain and misguided for us to completely admire, and yet
also beautiful, charming and representative of another life enough for William
to be forgiven for his entrancement. We understand how he could fall in love
with her, even though we're in a position to see he's too good for her. Another
key figure is Stillwater's charismatic guitarist, Russell Hammond (Billy
Crudup), a talented musician, and often a kind and intelligent guy, but
possessing far too big an ego, and often careless in his treatment of the
women who fall for him. "Stop telling me this!" William shouts when Penny
is musing over her relationship with Russell. "I want to like the
guy!"
There are also a lot of charming individual bits,
like when William's mother (Frances McDormand) chastises Russell on the
telephone, turning his manner into that of a humble little boy, and the amazing
early scene when William's sister leaves home, crouches down to give him
farewell words of encouragement, and we see eyes filled with hope and
unconditional love. It reminded me of one of my own relatives, someone I
don't see that often, but who always seems to genuinely care. Maybe it'll
remind you of someone. And even if it doesn't, it's just a beautiful human
moment.
I reflect that Cameron Crowe made "Say Anything",
one of the best ever films about youth, and that he also made "Jerry Maguire",
a masterpiece set around a specialist field. Here is a combination of sorts,
and also his own story -- which maybe makes it just that bit more special.
I see some of myself in this kid, a teenager with the power of the press
who finds himself surrounded by celebrities… it's kind of surreal sometimes,
being a young man referred to as a 'critic' and getting e-mail invitations
to film festivals. And yet I see something of all good people in him -- he
finds his passion, he does some growing up, and so on and so forth, and there
he is, and that's life.
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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