Almost Famous

Almost Famous

Oh what a joyful film; I very nearly hugged myself. “Almost Famous” is funny and touching in many different ways. It’s about a fifteen year old boy smart, fiercely sincere whom Rolling Stone sends to cover a rising rock band by luck and pluck; the magazine doesn’t know he’s fifteen. Clutching his pencil and notebook like amulets, dialing an older critic for advice, he jumps into the experience that will define him for ever more than anything else has or ever will. Imagine Huckleberry Finn in the 1970s: Instead of taking a raft down the Mississippi, he gets on the bus with the band.

In the movie, this kid is named William Miller; Patrick Fugit plays him as a boy molded by his mother’s fierce values who drives him to that concert which will change his life and drops him off with “don’t do drugs” as her mantra for all occasions. The character and the story are based on writer-director Cameron Crowe’s life, who was indeed a teenage Rolling Stone writer and who knows how lucky he was. Crowe grew up to write-direct “Say Anything” (1989), one of the best movies ever made about teenagers; here he tops himself.

But it is not just about William Miller. It’s also about Stillwater (the band). Backstage in San Diego, William talks himself backstage by knowing their names and hurling accurate compliments at them as they rush past on route to an arena stage show. He wins over Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), the guitarist, who lets him in. In those corridors back there he finds Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), who says she is not a groupie but a Band Aid “We don’t have sex with them,” she explains indignantly. But we still have fun.” What Penny Lane has done is taken group sex for girls into the realm of theory.

Frances McDormand stars as William’s mother, Elaine. Elaine is a college professor who believes in vegetarianism, progressive politics and the corrupting influence of rock music. She bans her older daughter Anita (Zooey Deschanel) from listening to rock albums. She holds up an album cover and asks her to look at the telltale signs in Simon and Garfunkel’s eyes: “Pot!” Anita leaves, giving all her records to William. In one of them he finds a note: “This song explains why I’m leaving home to become a stewardess.” The lyrics are: “I walked out to look for America.”

So does William; he expects to be away from school for only a few days. But Stillwater grows used to him; Russell does interviews with him on the bus (“What do you love about music?”), and by now he’s driven so far into the Southwest that it would take him longer than it took Odysseus just to get back home. Along the way, he observes tension between Russell and Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee), the lead singer, who thinks Russell is getting more attention than his role definition deserves: “I’m the lead singer, and you’re the guitarist with mystique.” He has two guardian angels looking after him.

One is Penny Lane, who is almost as young as he is but lies about her age. He loves her, or thinks he does; she loves Russell, or says she does; he admires Russell too much ever quite to believe him; Russell maintains a reserve that makes it hard even for himself to know what he thinks. Russell has the scowl and the facial hair of a rock star but is still only in his early 20s. And one of my best moments in Almost Famous comes when William’s mom lectures him over the phone about what might happen during this trip: “Do I make myself clear?” “Yes, ma’am,” he says, reverting to childhood.

His other angel is the legendary rock critic Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), then the editor of Creem: “So you’re the kid who’s been sending me those articles from your school paper.” He ignores the kid’s age, trusts his talent and shares his creed: “Be honest and unmerciful.” At moments of crisis on the road, William calls Bangs for advice. Lester Bangs was a real person (and so are Ben Fong-Torres and Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone; they’re played by look-alike actors).

The movie’s sense of time and place is so acute it’s possible to believe Stillwater was a real band. As we watch, they get a hit record; a hot-shot producer tries to take over from the guy who’s always managed them; they switch from bus to airplane; there are ego wars, not least when a T-shirt photo places Russell in the foreground and has the other band members out of focus (there is a little This Is Spinal Tap here).

“Almost Famous” is not a rock film but a film about the world of rock, it’s a film about coming of age. This happens when an idealistic boy sees the world as it really is and this shatters his illusions but at the same time, he never loses hope for better days. There is something delicate in the character of Penny Lane who tries to justify her existence and explain her values (in a milieu that seems to have none).

It makes William sad when Russell, who is married , treats her badly. But Penny doesn’t admit that she was hurt. There’s one scene acted so well by Kate Hudson that takes her character to another level When William tells her “He sold you to Humble Pie for 50 bucks and a case of beer.” Watch the silence, the brave smile ,the tear and the exact spin she puts on ‘What kind of beer?’ Not an easy laugh but rather an entire universe of understanding.

The gratitude beneath “Almost Famous” is rooted in Cameron Crowe’s writing. His protagonist William miller isn’t some alienated bore; he’s just lucky enough to have had a great mother, sister and friend like Anita Miller , meet right person in Russell Hammond (there could have been wrong ones), love deeply someone like Penny Lane which will give him strength for rest of his life as well as more knowledge about women than most men ever attain Looking at young earnest figure with tape recorder trying get interview listening advice from Bangs terrified while Ben Fong-Torres rails against deadline crushed because story looks like its going be rejected we don’t see failure or even success but rather potential greatness It would not surprise me if someday this person directed another movie similar “Almost Famous”.

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