Cameron Crowe is another director/writer/producer – the best always come in threes (at least I’ve heard) and since I’ve seen at least 3 of Crowe’s movies I can say that this is pretty much true. Jerry Maguire (1996), Vanilla Sky (2001), Elizabethtown (2005) are under his belt, all except Vanilla Sky I liked a lot. I had seen Almost Famous (2000) when I was younger but I re-watched it just few weeks ago.
Almost Famous tells a story about William, a teenager, who feels left out but finds his way by getting on a tour bus with a band. He is basically hired by a magazine to write a story about them, the band which has its ups and downs while they travel from a concert to a concert. While listing the actors I must start with Patrick Fugit, Almost Famous is his movie debut, and a quite good one I have to admit. He hasn’t done much ever since but I still remember his performance in White Oleander – so quality over quantity.
Other names in this are Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Bijou Phillips, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Paquin, Zooey Deschanel and Frances McDormand as the William’s mom. So the cast is solid, all of these names are pretty much known and some are even greater now than they were back then. But not to make this all about the actors I would say that the movie had many great moments. Although it’s a comedy it had a certain depth to it: a friendship story, a little bit of love – and all in all it, shows William (Fugit) growing up in the midst of a concert tour. It all gets a bit crazy at some point and the female roles in this are rather annoying (except Williams mom, she is a tough cookie): but I guess it’s what rockn’roll looks like.
Not to get all into it, Almost Famous is a rather interesting Monday night entertainment and worth the 4 out of 5 I’m giving it. No surprise it has an 8,0 on IMDb and out of all the movies I listed in the beginning, this one is Crowe’s greatest work. I like Elizabethtown a little bit more but it might be because I like Kristen Dunst’s character more than Hudson’s in this one. But this is a whole different matter that I’m not gonna get into at the moment.
If you check the movie out be sure to watch the opening credits which are simple and brilliant at the same time, besides there is something symbolic about them as well.
•Making things honest: images are from cswap.
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