An homage to the glorious era of rock n roll, this film appears like an out and out autobiographical. Even if they claim only the character Penny Lane is loosely based on a real person, I can tell William Miller is none other than Cameron Crowe himself.
Still Water, a small town Detroit band with just one hit to their name, are the new guys on the scene, who need every bit of attention and publicity coming their way. William Miller, a 15 year old newbie music critic who grew up on his sister's record collection, gets the opportunity to write a story about the band for Rolling Stone magazine. And the one and only Penny Lane, a band-aide who can turn a hotel room into home with her presence. Together they embark on the Almost Famous tour, which will turn out to be the most memorable time of their lives. The movie is filled with moments which make the greatest of our memories; the situations that make you go "I was there when that happened", "I saw Russell's hand get electrocuted", "I was at the party when he proclaimed he is a golden god."
The dynamics between the members of the band is fun to watch as William interviews them. We have the lead singer Jeff Bebe, trying to assert his position as the front-man; then there is the guitarist Russell, the effortless charmer. Jeff openly shares his views about his love for music, consciously trying to create an image for himself. He tries to portray the band in such a light that it appears above the hackneyed issues that usually plague them- like sex, drugs and in-fighting. Where on one side you have a bassist who couldn't put two words together to explain what he brings to the band, the drummer, on the other, is as good as mute.
But the important question is this: do you like a band more if you know their every dirty secret or when they are filled with mystique?
It made me so sad to see Penny, the band's single greatest fan, get used by them and thrown away. With William loving Penny and Penny loving Russel and Russel not knowing what he really wants, hearts get broken on all sides. Away from all the madness, William's worried but trusting mother Elaine, played by the lovely Frances McDormand, hopes her son's innocence remains intact. Elaine is easily one of the greatest movie moms of all time. My 160 minute long version is completely filled with wonderful moments; cutting a 2 hour theatrical cut and leaving out 40 minutes of scenes would be plain absurd. But they did and it has won a writing Oscar, so yeah. Can I use adorable to describe Crudup's character? Well, he is, in spite of everything. Hudson, Fugit, Jason Lee.. they're all wonderful. I was smiling ear to ear, completely in awe of this seemingly alien world which, after all, is more of the same. It made me immensely happy. So much so that I filled my phone with classic rock, which I had been neglecting of late.