Almost Famous

"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool."

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite movie is, which is an agonizing and awful question to ask someone like me by the way, invariably my answer is Almost Famous. Why, you may ask. It's a fair question, my dear faithful reader and I can imagine in all the breadth and width of cinematic offerings, what makes this film my favorite? While there are multitudes of other films that I love, hence the agonizing aspect of that question before, I must say with little doubt that this film is the one that brought me the most joy. There is something seductively charming about it, the rhythm of the dialogue as it's recited by it's pitch perfect cast backed by an amazing, outstanding even, soundtrack that includes Cat Stevens, The Allman Brothers Band, The Who and even Led Zeppelin in a film written and directed by Cameron Crowe, based on his own life experiences.  

William Miller (played by Patrick Fugit) is a fifteen year old aspiring journalist. He has been a huge rock music fan since he was a young boy when his sister, Anita (played by Zooey Deschanel), left him all her records when she left home. After getting the chance to spend some time with his idol, rock journalist Lester Bangs (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman), he gets an assignment to write an article on the upcoming Black Sabbath concert. At that concert, he has two important chance encounters. The first is the enigmatic and magical Penny Lane (played by Kate Hudson, in an Academy Award nominated performance), a groupie (or Band Aid, as she calls herself) who William develops an infatuation for. The second is the members of Black Sabbath's opening band, Stillwater and especially their lead guitarist, Russell Hammond (played by Billy Crudup). 

After that, he receives a call from Rolling Stone asking him to write for them. He proposes something on Stillwater, which they agree to and before he knows it, he's on tour with the band. His overprotective mother, Elaine (played by Frances McDormand) hesitantly lets him go, making him promise to call home often. Life on the road proves to be a wild ride for William as he bonds with both Penny and Russell and finds himself regularly playing host (platonically, of course) to other traveling groupies Sapphire (played by Fairuza Balk), Polexia (played by Anna Paquin) and Estrella (played by Bijou Phillips) in his hotel rooms. He witnesses fights between band members Russell and lead singer Jeff Bebe (played by Jason Lee). He also finds himself in over his head when he has to try and keep a high on acid Russell out of trouble when he tags along with him to a nearby house party. To only make things more complicated, he also finds himself in a love triangle with Penny and Russell. William is completely infatuated with Penny while Penny only has eyes for Russell and Russell is trying to have it all with both Penny and a girlfriend back home. It's complicated waters for anyone to navigate, especially a 15 year old kid. Needless to say, he does a lot of growing up in a short period of time, with some help from late night phone calls to Lester.

There is something about Almost Famous that really deeply touched me. There's a richness to it's characters and it's storytelling that it feels real. This makes sense when you know it is very closely based on writer and director Cameron Crowe's real life working at Rolling Stone and going on tour with bands very much like William does in the film. While the characters are fictional, it's all coming from a place of truth. There really was a Penny Lane and the band William travels with is an amalgam of the groups he traveled with at the time, with Russell being based very much on Gregg Allman apparently. William's mother, Elaine, is based on Crowe's own mother and in fact is featured on the Extended edition DVD's commentary along with Cameron himself. 

I went to school and majored in Journalism and I have to admit that this film was one of the inspirations behind it. I was more than a little amused to find out that upon getting to know many of my classmates over those few years that Almost Famous figured into their decision to go into that major as well. I wonder if it's just because it looked like fun, traveling across the country and more or less running away with "the Circus" as the characters in their film refer to their tour as? I know that's a part of it for me. But another part is I just related to William as a character in a way that I hadn't before and maybe only one or two times since. He's quiet, sensitive, smart, an intense listener and close to his mother. Aside from getting to tour with rock bands, I more or less was this kid.

The film also has a dynamite soundtrack, with tracks from Elton John, Cat Stevens, The Allman Brothers Band, Yes, Lou Reed, David Bowie and most surprisingly several tracks from Led Zeppelin (who are notorious for refusing to allow their music to be licensed for films and have only allowed it a couple times since). The music works well with the film at every scene, setting a time and place as well as a feeling and mood. Tying it all together is a fantastic score from Nancy Wilson (of Heart).  

In the end though, it's the fantastic writing, the dynamite cast, and the soundtrack to the film that combine to create a near perfect film in my eyes. I loved all these characters and literally did not want the film to end. Naturally then, I prefer the longer, extended cut of the film as opposed to the theatrical version. It's the rare movie that everytime I watch it, even though it clocks in at an extensive two hours and forty minutes, I don't want it to end. Towards the end of the film, Sapphire talks about what it means to be a fan, to love something so much it hurts. Which is funny, because that's how I feel about this film.