Director, Cameron Crowe is one of those success stories that will never happen to you. You know those types: A talent allowed to ascend due to the fickleness of time, space, and place. Someone who debuts into the mainstream because someone else liked them enough to let them step out. For people like me this is the worst kind of story. It means that no matter what you do, no matter how good your are, God will only reward your abilities with a roll of the universal dice.
ALMOST FAMOUS is that type of story. It's a quasi-autobiographical film that circulates around Crowe's true life corner turn. The names and faces have been changed, but the coming-of-age is quite real. Crowe was 15-years-old when he started writing for Rolling Stone magazine. A fact that is documented here and magnified (but not fabricated) by the fact that he was able to travel with some of the greatest rock bands in music history not to shortly after his voice cracked.
If the universe had to select Crowe for a reason, then it must have been his talent of making EVERYTHING seem autobiographical. Here, of course it is, but even in previous films (JERRY MAGUIRE, SINGLES) and even his lesser, later films (VANILLA SKY) have such a ring of truth to them that it makes him hard to deny.
There is an alert honesty in every frame of ALMOST FAMOUS, even in the scenes where we are probably seeing fudged details. Perfect example of this is Penny Lane (played with beautiful abstraction by Kate Hudson). From her perspective she is a muse, the music doesn't work for her, she works for the music. In actuality, she is just a groupie, traveling from state to state trying to catch the eye of Stillwater's lead singer Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup). Her performance is equal parts bull shit and equal parts truth. If she had credo (actually, she has plenty) it would be: "The music is really all you need." But what happens when the music inevitably stops?
It's a answer that Penny Lane, William Miller (Crowe's stand-in), Hammond and the rest of Stillwater all have to inevitably face: Rocketing success may be a chance encounter but maybe being almost famous is just as sweet.
ALMOST FAMOUS is that type of story. It's a quasi-autobiographical film that circulates around Crowe's true life corner turn. The names and faces have been changed, but the coming-of-age is quite real. Crowe was 15-years-old when he started writing for Rolling Stone magazine. A fact that is documented here and magnified (but not fabricated) by the fact that he was able to travel with some of the greatest rock bands in music history not to shortly after his voice cracked.
If the universe had to select Crowe for a reason, then it must have been his talent of making EVERYTHING seem autobiographical. Here, of course it is, but even in previous films (JERRY MAGUIRE, SINGLES) and even his lesser, later films (VANILLA SKY) have such a ring of truth to them that it makes him hard to deny.
There is an alert honesty in every frame of ALMOST FAMOUS, even in the scenes where we are probably seeing fudged details. Perfect example of this is Penny Lane (played with beautiful abstraction by Kate Hudson). From her perspective she is a muse, the music doesn't work for her, she works for the music. In actuality, she is just a groupie, traveling from state to state trying to catch the eye of Stillwater's lead singer Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup). Her performance is equal parts bull shit and equal parts truth. If she had credo (actually, she has plenty) it would be: "The music is really all you need." But what happens when the music inevitably stops?
It's a answer that Penny Lane, William Miller (Crowe's stand-in), Hammond and the rest of Stillwater all have to inevitably face: Rocketing success may be a chance encounter but maybe being almost famous is just as sweet.
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