ALMOST FAMOUS review
Published at: Sept. 9, 2000, 7:42 a.m. CST by headgeek
I don’t know how much good this review will be for
you... Ya see ALMOST FAMOUS was an extremely
personal experience for me in the theater last night.
Now I’m not gonna say this is the greatest movie to
look behind the veil of Rock-n-Roll music...
Personally I believe that probably belongs to the
world of documentaries... I really believe that
something like GIMME SHELTER works on levels
so much more profound than an acted out film...
Simply because you know you are witnessing the
reality of it all.
I bring up GIMME SHELTER because I just watched
it last night... in its Dolby Digital sounding best...
watching the early camera work of George Lucas...
Watching the ROLLING STONES in their relaxed
down time moments... I realized that ALMOST
FAMOUS isn’t a great look on the backside of
Rock-N-Roll...
What Cameron Crowe has made however, is a
striking look at what it is like to not be the famous
person... going everywhere the famous people go.
That’s what this film is.
Sure we look at the rock gods, but we see them at
their most glamorous memorable moments of life.
The decadent peaks and valleys.
Crowe takes us on drug overdoses and drug highs...
through the dancing young nubile giggly flesh of the
backstage tarts...
This young wide eyed kid goes from the purity of
albums and radio waves.... to the decadence of
backstages and orgiastic hotel scenes... at the age of
15/16...
He takes us to the scene of 1974 Rock-n-Roll through
the eyes of a fan... a fan that sees that the Rock Gods
have all the treats of Bacchus, but are in reality quite
self-involved human beings... that become gods when
the lights come up and the amps cook and the mike
ceases to feedback.
Now having just watched GIMME SHELTER, I saw
a noted lack of DOWN TIME in ALMOST
FAMOUS... but then, when you get the backstage
pass... When you are the enemy.... You nearly
always see your subject while they are still... ON. It
is only after an intensive amount of time spent with
the individual or group of people that you really
begin to see the real person. It is only then that you
get to know the real way a person reacts to a given
situation.
In ALMOST FAMOUS you see the star struck
untrained journalist cross all the traditional journalist
lines. You see him completely cross the line from
journalist to friend... and you see him reach the
otherside with an uncompromised piece of writing
that was a completely honest portrayal of his
experiences with the subjects.
You know... How can I not associate with the
character of William Miller (played fantastically by
Patrick Fugit). Here is a kid with no formal training,
working in a fairly new medium... that being
Underground Newspapers and magazines and then
finally ROLLING STONE as a rock critic. He’s just
a kid. How can he judge rock-n-roll or any other
form of music? He’s accepted because he’s not afraid
to speak up, to voice and state his opinions... because
he can communicate what his eyes beheld and put
them in words for the world to also see.
Now this movie is filled with great moments and
great scenes... but for me, my favorite moment of the
entire film... the most real and honest moment is a
very small... to most people... completely forgettable
scene....
When William is up on stage for the first time... off in
the wing, watching Stillwater perform for the first
time... and Penny Lane is standing next to him... she
sees that he’s busily writing notes... scratching away
at his little notepad like you’d imagine Ben Hecht in
the days of old. Penny reaches over and takes his
pencil away.
The moment is one of sheer beauty for me. You see,
that’s a philosophy. When the music is playing... you
see pushing the pencil... you watch and soak it all in.
You have to watch... watch the way the rock stars hair
captures the colored lighting... the way the crowd
sways and churns... the people clawing at the stage...
the beading of sweat on the forehead of the drummer
as he pounds home the beat... the intense vibration in
your own sternum as the sound pours forth... And you
have to communicate that... put it in print, and if you
are busy with notes... standing there... head down,
fingers wrestling the number 2 for a scant few words
on the page... when you are missing the 40 other
sentences you’d pick up just by watching.
Ok... so that’s one level of the film... That’s the side
where I most strongly relate... but there is so much
that everyone can latch on to.
Remember when you first discovered your first
Rock-n-Roll? Remember how it felt like a
revelation... as though someone whispered a dirty
secret to you? I remember, I was just a kid... about 3
or 4... I fell in love with the song RAMBLING
MAN... I used to jump up and down and sing the
song way wrong and drove my parents nuts... it was
that and DIG DIG from my Snow White album. A
couple of years after that... it was PINBALL
WIZARD. In between, I was being raised in the
amplified reality of the Armadillo World
Headquarters... I was that hippie child... my parents
ran the Light Shows... I danced off to the side... but
there was something so real and honest about the
music coming. In ALMOST FAMOUS you get that.
You feel that.
The only real moments for these guys are the onstage
moments. That brings us to STILLWATER... the
band. The stand outs are Jason Lee and Billy
Crudup... Both really really shine here. In fact, I’d
say these two really become stars for the first time for
me. I loved Jason Lee in CHASING AMY, but
here... he’s just perfect. And Billy Crudup... he is just
a ROCK STAR in this... pure unadulterated charisma.
A STAR. I last really liked Billy in WITHOUT
LIMITS, but here... WoW. Crudup is the entire
package here.
This is what is wonderful about this film. Billy
Crudup becomes a star. This Patrick Fugit exhibits
AMAZING TALENT... and Kate Hudson becomes a
super star here. If, as we reported, Kate becomes
Mary Jane... she’s going to be huge. Hudson is just
absolute magic in the film. She’s a Gala... a muse...
that which inspires art and poetry and music. That’s
the part she plays... a magical creature, the last
unicorn. Speak her real name and she disappears, she
is for all purposes... Penny Lane.
Between those three fantastic performances...
Cameron Crowe’s wonderfully honest and real
screenplay... Oh... and a performance worthy of
supporting actress looking at by Frances McDormand
as.... ummmmm... one of the scariest mothers in film
history... hehehe...
Overall... I love this movie. It shows the initial
hostility and distrust between reporters and artists... it
shows how hard it is to earn respect and trust to
gather information and a familiarity out of your
subject so that you don’t get the same pat answers to
the same pat questions.
Here it shows a pretty damn fine look at how that
process needs to breakdown in order for it to work. It
has to hit the dumps so there can be a moment of
awakening. And ya know... Cameron doesn’t miss a
beat.
Now, I’ve heard that later on when the DVDs hit
there will be two versions... one release for ALMOST
FAMOUS and one for UNTITLED which was
significantly longer... I can’t wait. Talking to John
Robie about this film and the other version he saw...
has me lusting for the longer version as well.
I can’t wait to see Kate Hudson and Patrick Fugat on
screen again. And I’m very happy to see Cameron
Crowe already at work casting his next film. Goody.
Ahhhh.... I can't believe I initially forgot to include the hands down film stealing role/performance of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Here... he's playing the cynical been up and down both sides of this street... worldly wise, aging rock-n-roller critic. He is all at once... beatnik, hipster, Yoda and the coolest spouter of the truth you ever did see. Phillip is currently like the Film House Keeping Seal of Approval... you see him in the film... you know it's good. Again, another fantastic turn by this great actor.