DVD Review # 50 Almost Famous (Plus I rank the Cameron Crowe filmography) With Talking Flick Podcast Appearance!

Almost Famous (2000) Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Francis McDormand Written and Directed by Cameron Crowe

"Aw, Man. You made friends with them. See Friendship is the booze they feed you. They want you to get drunk on the feeling like you belong." Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Lester Bangs)

Rarely does a film come along that truly gives you the urge to hug yourself. Almost Famous is a 2000 masterpiece that has aged like a bottle of Silver Oak Napa. Each time I view it through the lens of being older, more failures, more success, more love, more loss, more life…each time its meaning to me personally shifts a bit. The genius of this script is that a majority of it is based on the true life of its author, a young naïve Cameron Crowe, I mean write what you know right? Crowe, like Aaron Sorkin, Charlie Kaufman, Alexander Payne, a few select others has the ability to guarantee I show up at the theater when they write a film. They occasionally fail, but when they are good, they are so good!

Brilliant Writer/Director Cameron Crowe directs a perfectly sweet coming of age story that has stood the test of time so far, and I don’t see Almost Famous fading away anytime soon. Crowe loosely based the film’s protagonist William Miller (played perfectly by Patrick Fugit) on himself and his experience as a teenager covering bands like The Allman Brothers and The Eagles (In Fact Billy Crudup’s spot-on character Russell Hammond is loosely based on Glenn Frey). Almost Famous is chalk full of legendary supporting performances (if I could pry the 73^rdAcademy Awards Oscars away from Benicio Del Toro and Patricia Clarkson and give them to Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Francis McDormand or Kate Hudson, I would, I would Bill & Ted that shit for sure), each supporting character gets many, many expertly crafted lines (credit Crowe the writer who has done this before). I can’t think of another film where so many small parts were casted this well. It is nearly impossible to single out one supporting character but if I had to, for me it’s the mother, Elaine Miller (Oscar Worthy Performance by Francis McDormand), she is the through line that allows us that glimpse into the mind of the young William. Without her fierce scenes of stern expectations and her thoughts on that corrupting rock music, we would never really understand this journey. The character, not surprisingly is based on Crowe’s actual mother, who is said to like the portrayal, she only complains that Francis McDormand is barefoot too often in the film. Once the mother allows William to go on this crazy journey, he needs a guide, for this Crowe smartly chooses the wonderful and interesting Band-Aid (not groupie), Penny Lane (Another Oscar Worthy Performance put in here by Kate Hudson, who did win a Golden Globe). Penny along with other Band-Aids (Fairuza Balk, Bijou Phillips, Olivia Rosewood, and Anna Paquin) all amazing, take William on a journey that will change his life forever. When he needs a little advice, he can’t call his mom and be honest with what’s happening, so who does he call? Lester Bangs (a real life American Rock Critic, played as perfectly as you can by the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman), he has the best lines in the film (that is full of amazing writing mind you), “Great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing and love disguised as sex, and sex disguised as love…and let’s face it, you got a big head start.”  In a sad twist of symmetry both the real-life Lester Bangs and actor Hoffman died of drug overdoses. Almost Famous is about a lot of things, the 70’s, band culture, rock star decadence, idealism, growth, naivety, all things Crowe seems to be more than qualified to write about. I think that is why this movie so rewatchable, with different viewings you find yourself understanding and relating to different characters in different ways. In my younger days I was always relating to William, after a few heartbreaks I could see the Lester Bangs viewpoint, now that I’m old, I think, jeez Elaine is just looking out for her son! Good writing is always some combination of art imitating life and life imitating art, this movie is constant loop of these ideas. I fully expect the music to live on forever and this film maybe the best music movie ever made (that’s not a documentary because truth is always stranger than fiction when it comes to bands SEE Rolling Stone: Stories From the Edge, Genesis Sum of all parts, or History of the Eagles). Almost Famous is a MUST WATCH, if you only see 25 movies in your whole life, this needs to be one of them. SEE IT!

(The Shawshank Scale 1-10) Cameron Crowe is one of my favorite Directors and this is his second best work ever (Jerry Maguire a Top Ten Film of All Time, being the 1st), I won’t argue with you if you think Almost Famous is better than Jerry Maguire both films are All timers after all. I gave Jerry Maguire a 9.5 and it sits as my #5 film of all time, Almost Famous is just outside my Top 10, but not by much, I’m giving it a 9.0 on The Shawshank Scale and I look forward to watching it again…ITS ALL HAPPENING! 

Ranking Cameron Crowe Films:

1. Jerry Maguire (1996)-Such a beautifully crafted film with maybe the best casting of all time.

2. Almost Famous (2000)-Music, Love, Life…I mean Almost Perfect!

3. Say Anything (1989)-Lloyd with the boombox playing Peter Gabriel...I mean cmon!

4. Elizabethtown (2005)-Mix CD, Skynyrd, Road Trip, Dunst Perfect, Bloom less so.

5. Singles (1992)-Perfectly capturing the Seattle music scene at exactly the right time. 

6. We Bought a Zoo (2011)-A sweet family film, that got a bad rap.

7. Vanilla Sky (2001)-It has problems, but I found a lot to like in this interesting thriller.

SHOUTS TO FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (Which he wrote and Amy Heckerling Directed), His only truly bad film is 2015’s Aloha which had some nice thoughts but ultimately is just a bad film. I am a true believer, I think he has greatness in him still, I hope we see him on top of Hollywood again. 

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY GUEST APPEARANCE ON TALKING FLICK!

Talking Flick: This week on Talking Flick we talk about an all timer ALMOST FAMOUS! 

Talking Flick on Anchor (Almost Famous Episode)
Talking Flick on iTunes (Almost Famous Episode)