ALMOST FAMOUS: The Sublimely Intelligent Rock ‘n’ Roll Trip, 14 Years On

A predominantly accelerated 15-year-old called William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is embarrassingly out of sync with his snarling high-school mates. His mother Elaine (Frances McDormand) is an English teacher who worries about William’s influences and invites rowdy laughter from his classmates when she shouts, “Don’t take drugs!” to him while dropping him off. She is a strict disciplinarian (read: a pain in the ass) to her daughter Anita (Zooey Deschanel) because Elaine thinks rock music is about drugs and promiscuous sex, while Anita worships Simon and Garfunkel.

One fine day Anita moves out of the house and confers a treasure-hoard of heavenly music to an 11-year-old William. She gifts him her vinyl collection of old classics. The journey begins thus, and ends by burrowing itself so deep in our affection that it becomes indistinguishable from our love. The 2000 film Almost Famous is magic.

Cameron Crowe‘s script and direction does the heavy-lifting for the film on the surface. After a first watch, all we are left with is a hot, indelible impression of a feel-good drama which spun on an axis made of music. The acting is solid, the music is mesmerizing and the writing is marvelous. The fabric of time has failed in tarnishing the film’s outright glow because after everything is said and done, Almost Famous is, at its very core, a film about the pleasure and pain of growing up. And that will never be obsolete.

It is rollicking entertainment with the playful energy of a child, the hormonal rage of a teenager and the soul of an artist pining for more music. Almost Famous still manages to draw us in with an enchanting trip into the deepest corners of its characters’ psyche. In my geek world, this is the movie I’ll watch with my kid on his/her 16th birthday.

Timeless virtues

A 10/10 score is often the subject of wide debate. Does it mean that the movie is perfect? Does it mean that everyone, no matter what their personal taste, will like it? No. A 10/10 score simply implies that, to me, the film is a certified, one-of-its-kind artistic achievement, and these claims have been checked by countless re-watches over a considerable amount of time. It implies that the film simply refuses to bow to standards set by other genres and makes the world of its creation a fascinating place to visit repeatedly This film is – in William’s own words – incendiary.

Film criticism is not about finding faults, it’s about knowing what the film is when it’s playing in front of you. Almost Famous shook my life to a screeching halt and asked me to introspect. It is the kind of cinema that instills the belief that there is still hope for you on this ridiculous planet and restores your faith in movies.

Crowe made the film as a zany salute to his own past life. The film’s narrative is semi-autobiographical – Crowe used to write for the Rolling Stone magazine as a teenager and had actually toured with The Allman Brothers Band – just like William does with Stillwater. His terrific nuances appear scattered like confetti all over the screenplay (which won an Oscar): hand-written notes on observation and concerts, glossy Polaroid photos to capture the moody trance of the journey, writer’s block, whooshing deadlines and a nerve-wracking mother who wouldn’t stop calling.

Patrick Fugit nails William’s uneasy demeanor and pairs the character’s nervous intelligence with his own dimple-cheek simplicity. Frances McDormand is absolutely amazing as the neurotic mother who has the power to freak out everyone from a hotel desk clerk to a wannabe rock star with her boarding school verbosity.

The things that make it

Kate Hudson plays Penny Lane (yep, like the song) who is a ‘retired’ rock personality of her own dazzling charm. She says she’s visiting friends and hops up on the journey because she believes in the music. Penny takes up William in her arms, first as a student, then as a friend…Their interactions, in a world where even the walls cry in guitar chords, are sweet and honest; heartbreaking and affirming at the same time.

In a film which lives and breathes music, the soundness of showing a bunch of actors as members of a 70’s rock band is of paramount importance. It is a good thing then, that the actors are up for the challenge. Billy Crudup plays Russell Hammond, lead guitarist of ‘Stillwater’, and the reason of a skin-deep fracture in the band due to his turbulent relationship with Jeff (Jason Lee), the lead singer.

Russell trusts William’s questioning, journalistic attitude and lets him in on the little things about the band. The other two members don’t really have much to say (barring a shockingly funny confession on a near-fatal flight). But Crudup and Lee handle their flammable ties with tremendous skill without losing the spark of their respective characters. The band’s rehearsals, their celebrations, their tussles with the manager (the superb Noah Taylor) and their unsure, expectant dreams about making it big are handled so beautifully that it comes off as coolly natural with perfect ease.

But the best performance of the film comes from, you guessed it, the supremely talented Philip Seymour Hoffman. He portrayed a rock critic, Lester Bangs, with a snaky menace and saddles up as the mentor to the muddled William. William is on his first tour with a band, but Lester knows it all because he’s literally been there, done that. His advice on being ‘honest and unmerciful’ springs from the deep realization that both he and William are uncool, and incurably so. It is a crucial role and the impact of his stunning conversational monologues, on both Willaim and the film’s classic storytelling, are immense.

Trip down Penny Lane

The Who, Simon and Garfunkel, Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Cat Stevens, Lynyrd Skynyrd: every significant band and artist of the era ends up pouring in a contribution to the bittersweet nostalgia of the setting. And Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’ will be etched in your memory (and your playlist) forever, that’s a promise. A magnificent soundtrack for a brilliant film about music – oh, yeah.

Almost Famous is in my top five favorites of all time. Hopefully it will make an entry in yours, too. If you’ve already watched this, maybe it’s time to revisit. The trailer below will get you all mushy and excited. Newbies, you need to watch this as soon as humanly possible. Thank me later.

Leave your personal Almost Famous memories in the comments. How old were you when you first watched it, and what was your reaction then? Suggestions of similar films are more than welcome. Read and share the love!