“Almost Famous”

Director & Writer: Cameron Crowe

“Almost Famous” is the story of a 15 year old boy, William Miller (Patrick Fugit)  music journalist, on the road with an up and coming rock band, Stillwater, to write an article about them for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1970s. An overbearing mother, who is struggling to find the right balance between smothering her children and giving them their freedom, Elaine Miller (Frances McDonald)  has this fear and distrust for rock and roll. Its heavy use of drugs and sex, had her worrying about her sons’ whereabouts at every moment of the day. William Miller seeks advice from his mentor, Creem rock critic Lester Bangs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who advised him “you cannot make friends with the rock stars.” However William allows to delude his self into the lifestyle of the group’s guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), while falling in love with the Stillwater’s ultimate groupie Penny Lane (KateHudson) who Hammond is also having a fling with. 

The story is based on the life of Cameron Crowe. The film digs deeper than the music in the 70’s. It is more about the coming of age story of William Miller. In the movie William finds out who he is, who he want to become, and what he aspires to be when he gets older. He learns how to live without his over protective mother by his side. During the process he loses his virginity, uses drugs, and saves the girl he loves from an overdose. William provides us the portal into the movie. He helps Stillwater realize that they were “in this for the fans” after referring to Penny Lane as “that groupie” in a heated argument. Lane was the most charismatic character in the entire film, who was stuck in this love circle between Hammond and William. 

After submitting the article to Rolling Stone, the editors don’t want to publish it, because it was a “puff piece” and Hammond denied everything William wrote about him and his band. Bangs, his advisor throughout this movie tells William to be “honest and unmerciful”. Bangs didn’t want him to leave a single piece of detail out of his article. 

“Almost Famous” is interfered with the sense of longing that is associated with love at first sight and the struggles with the inevitable separation between a child and parents. The film captures the precise atmosphere of the early 70’s and who grew up in that era.