`Almost Famous” is a movie about rock ‘n’ roll bands and pop music in the early ’70s that actually brought tears of happiness to my eyes. This rapturously entertaining picture, about an improbably young rock journalist and his baptism of fire on a 1973 cross-country tour — traveling with a journeyman hard rock band as it teeters on the verge of fame — is nostalgic and romantic in the best sense. It recalls its period and people in a clear-eyed, non-condemning way, with both insider smarts and deep, full-hearted affection. It rocks hard and sweetly, making that past live and sing for us. I loved this movie madly, and so will many of you.
Writer-director Cameron Crowe (“Jerry Maguire”) based “Famous” on recollections of his own experiences in ’73, when he was a teenage San Diego-based reporter for Creem magazine and Rolling Stone, and he’s captured that era without becoming vacuous and gushy or embittered and poisonous. Crowe was only 15 when he started writing for Creem’s legendary critic-editor Lester Bangs. So is his surrogate character here, William Miller (played by newcomer Patrick Fugit) — a baby-faced, Beatle-haired high school senior who has skipped several grades because of his ultra-disciplined college teacher mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand), and loves rock thanks to his rebellious sister Anita (Zooey Deschanel). It is through William’s shining kid’s eyes that Crowe shows us the rock life circa 1973: with its shaggy-haired guitar stars, drugs, groupies, freak-outs, backstage brawls and frenzied concerts before screaming crowds — at a time when The Who and The Rolling Stones were at their peak. William is a brainy, nerdy outsider who honestly loves and studies the music and the musicians. And when he meets the furiously iconoclastic, acidly brilliant Bangs — after a local radio interview program where Bangs trashes the superstar Doors and extols the lesser-known Iggy Pop — he wins over Bangs and finagles an assignment to cover a local Black Sabbath concert.
Crowe loves Billy Wilder’s movies, and much of the comedy here comes from a classic Wilder plot ploy: plunging a naive character into a seemingly corrupt world. We feel the abyss yawning when mother Elaine drops William off at the show, yelling, “Don’t take drugs!” But Crowe cannily conveys the disparity between image, fears and reality. William, left without a clue as to how to get backstage, is barred by the sour guard but adopted by the “band aids,” post-groupie female consorts whose ranks include Sapphire (Fairuza Balk), Polexia Aphrodisia (Anna Paquin) and local teen dream and party queen Penny Lane (Kate Hudson).
Even more luckily, he gloms onto the supporting band, (the fictitious) Stillwater: charismatic lead guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), resentful lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee), bass player Larry Fellows (Mark Kozelek) and drummer Ed Vallencort (John Fedevich). After his knowledge of Stillwater’s music overcomes their instant mistrust of journalists — they call William “the Enemy” — they get him backstage.
By the end of the night, frizzy-haired, insouciant Penny has won his heart and so has Stillwater — especially when they invite him along to Los Angeles and the famously nicknamed “Park Riot” (or Park Hyatt). With Bangs’ advice, William — faking his age and deepening his voice over the phone — is able to turn the invitation into an assignment for Rolling Stone from earnest, bespectacled editor Ben Fong-Torres (Terry Chen).
The rest of the movie is a constantly entertaining, often delightful and scary odyssey through a world of orgiastic excess and outrageous absurdity, packed with music (over 50 evocative ’70s songs and a few Crowe-Nancy Wilson originals) and laced with heart-piercing wit and romanticism. William, a scholarly idealist-innocent set loose in chaos, has promised his worried mother to be back for his June graduation. But soon, he’s stretched the trip cross-country to New York City and lost a good part of his innocence (but not his idealism).
A jaded critic might call “Almost Famous” improbable Hollywood wish-fulfillment stuff — except that Crowe lived much of what he reimagines here. (The Stillwater road show is modeled on tours with Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers Band; the dynamics of those bands also suggest Stillwater’s messily human backstage bickering and onstage solidarity.) “Almost Famous” doesn’t cover up the pop industry’s warts and sins; it simply shows and then takes us past them. Very few movies give you such a sense of why pop and rock music can move us so much, link so many different cultures and peoples. And few movies let you recall so strongly what teenage love felt like — not just William’s deep crush on Penny but on Stillwater and the pop music world itself.
Though Philip Seymour Hoffman’s genius ranter Bangs is the showpiece role, and “Golden God” guitarist Crudup and teen goddess Hudson are the heartbreakers, they’re only part of a dead-on perfect ensemble — one where everyone, from McDormand’s protective mom down to the tiniest roadie cameo, is terrific. The design and cinematography (“Braveheart’s” John Toll) open your eyes; even the editing is witty.
The scene that made me cry those tears of joy is a classic movie moment: It almost recapitulates that well-loved bus song bonding scene (“The Man on the Flying Trapeze”) from Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night.” Here, the band is mellowing on their bus, with Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” playing. Gradually, with John’s piano tinkling that melodious vamp, they all begin to join in (“Blue jean baby, L.A. lady…”), and as the song builds and we see William still worrying about making it home, Penny turns and says something that may break and heal your heart at the same time.
“Almost Famous” is a classic American movie mix of reportorial savvy and crowd-pleasing romance and humor. The great Hollywood movies — and I think this is one of them — often expertly blend darkness and light, the seemingly cynical with the seemingly sentimental. They go for our hearts after disarming our skepticism. “Almost Famous” may be a comic valentine to Crowe’s teenage years, as well as to pop music and Lester Bangs. But don’t we all react much the same way to the passions and mentors of our youth, the glad times past — even if there were precious few of them?
By slipping us this backstage pass to his teenage adventures, Crowe gives us a wondrous gift, spins a great yarn. It’s good, at least part of the time, to make audiences happy, and I can’t imagine any audience leaving this movie without a big collective smile –even though Crowe shows a surprising amount of pain, anguish, anxiety and bad times along the way. Is he evasive? Not at all. He knows just what many of us came to see and hear. It’s only rock ‘n’ roll — but we like it.
“ALMOST FAMOUS”
(star)(star)(star)(star)
Directed and written by Cameron Crowe; photographed by John Toll; edited by Joe Hutshing, Saar Klein; art direction by Clay A. Griffith, Clayton R. Hartley; music composed by Nancy Wilson; music supervisor Danny Bramson; technical consultant Peter Frampton; original songs by Nancy and Ann Wilson, Crowe, Frampton; produced by Crowe, Ian Bryce. Running time: 2:00. MPAA rating: R (language, drug use, sensuality).
THE CAST:
Russell Hammond ……….. Billy Crudup
Elaine Miller …………. Frances McDormand
William Miller ………… Patrick Fugit
Jeff Bebe …………….. Jason Lee
Lester Bangs ………….. Philip Seymour Hoffman
Anita Miller ………….. Zooey Deschanel
Penny Lane ……………. Kate Hudson
Sapphire ……………… Fairuza Balk
Polexia Aphrodisia …….. Anna Paquin
