Movie Reviews

Almost Famous

22 Feb 2001

The highly influential "Rolling Stone" magazine has always been the Bible for rock music snobs: those people who would elevate miscreants like Eminem and the Sex Pistols to god-like status, while dismissing melody-makers like 'N Sync and Carole King for being somehow "anti-rock". (THEIR derogatory term, not mine.) In its glory years of the sixties and seventies, most of "Rolling Stone"'s articles were as pretentious as the average Led Zeppelin lyrics.

In "Almost Famous", writer-director Cameron Crowe ("Jerry Maguire") draws on his own experience as a teenage rock journalist, in a story about William (newcomer Patrick Fugit), a 15-year-old rock fan, whose work for underground music papers wins him a gig with "Rolling Stone", touring with a dysfunctional hard rock band called Stillwater. Fittingly, it is set in 1973, which was the heyday of rock. It really was! The music would never again be so conceited and self-important (Oasis and Kurt Cobain notwithstanding).

William has first-hand experience of this artificial world, becoming somewhat wiser in the process. He befriends Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), Stillwater's guitar genius, who is only slightly less screwed-up than his bandmates. They both fall for Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), a super-cool but severely deluded "band aid" (glorified groupie), who keeps talking about "the real world" as a place to avoid. Of course, she's in for a rude awakening.

It is a more affectionate look into the rock world than, say, "High Fidelity", and hence not as funny. Still, it has its moments. Many of the performances are especially good, including the radiant Hudson, Noah Taylor as the tough English manager, and Frances McDormand as William's overbearing mother. Other actors, such as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Anna Paquin, are a welcome but under-utilised presence.

We can see why Crowe left this world behind. It's a film about people who live an overblown rock lifestyle, but in their spare time prefer to sing along to the less pretentious songs of Elton John and Dr Hook. The too-happy ending is one of the few real weaknesses, reminding us that Hollywood movies, like the rock world of "Rolling Stone", exist far away from Penny's "real world".