Almost Famous (USA. 2000)

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m easily creatively sparked. Give me a song and I’ll want to hit the keyboard. Throw me a book and I’ll start scribbling my first chapter. Cinema is even more severe. Some films make me want to emulate them, other films I want to better, and then sometimes, there’s that one piece of work that deals with the art of creating and the art of loving what you write/work/obsess over that just puts my ass in gear. Almost Famous is one of those movies.

As a young child William Miller (Patrick Figit) watched his sister (Zooey Deschanel) leave home after her mother (Frances Mcdormand) cared about her to the point of smothering. She leaves with one parting phrase to her younger sibling “One day, you’ll be cool.” Four years later William is fifteen years old, the youngest of his graduating class and in love with Rock’N Roll. His one passion is musical journalism and when the chance comes up to cover the up and coming band Still Water as they tour the states, he can’t in his right mind turn it down. His mother meekly agrees after he promis that nothing will happen, but not even William is ready for all the internal band struggles, the crazy life on the road and a mysterious groupie named Penny Lane. And he can’t finish the damn article! William finds him tackling the fact that he’s becoming friend with lead guitarist Russel (Billy Crudup) and the fact that he has a truthful article to write for Rolling Stones. It doesn’t help that Billy’s fallen for Penny and Penny’s fallen for Russel. Things are definelty going to get complicated for this fifteen year old kid.

I saw AF over five years ago on VHS in a crowded room of teenager. No one liked it. They didn’t find it funny, they found long and they didn’t get the period. I can’t honestly say I completely bought it either, but even it stirred the fires in my belly. I was left enough lingering “I remember that was a good movie!” memories to warrant the purchase of the new fangled (and now out of print) “BOOTLEG” cut. Roughly forty five minutes are re-inserted into the theatrical film and it makes all the difference. The relatively bullet straight plot is given room to breathe and move. The band is expanded on (Yet still remain caricatures in some respects, but that’s the point), we see more of William’s past home life and Penny becomes more of a fleshed character instead of the fortune cookie spouting placeholder she was before. It may feel a little long at points but I never thought that anything was self indulgent in the slightest. We’re allowed to really feel the love that director/writer Crowe has for the era and the music that stemmed from it. Patrick Fugit as the relatively subdued young journalist creates such a sympathetic character that I’m absolutely surprised he never went on to a bigger career. That fact that the events on screen are supposedly a semi-true compilation of all the adventures a young journalist Crowe experienced while touring with bands, make it feel that much more real. Almost Famous is about a lot of things at the end of the day: Friendship, the price of fame and how the love for something labelled by most of the world as “disposable entertainment you do when there’s nothing else to do” can drive your life. I especially know about that last one. That’s the reason I’m doing this!

NOTE: Once again, the BOOTLEG cut is the only way to go. Be careful because most of the copies out there now are of the theatrical variety, which isn’t horrible by any means, but it feels more like an appetizer instead of a full meal.