Almost Famous

There was a time in my life when I could have been engaged in a conversation with classmates or people at a party and we would start talking about movies. Someone would mention a movie like Scent of a Woman and all but one of us would start nodding in agreement. Then I would turn to the poor soul who said nothing and when they breathlessly uttered the words "I haven't seen it" I would jump done their throat and insist that the next thing they should do in their life is see that movie. I have done that seemingly 100 times in my life and the only thing I can say is that mercifully I have toned it down to a point were I almost never do it anymore.
However, if you are reading this and you have never seen Almost Famous than you need to stop reading now and before you doing anything else with your life SEE THIS FILM!
For the record this is my film although Heidi is also a fan. I actually bought it for a second time in my life recently which is why I am going slightly outside of alphabetical order to talk about the film now. The reason behind my buying it a second time is that I went through a somewhat ill advised period in which I attempted to purge my movie collection of R-rated films before having children. Of course the wife then wanted Constant Gardner and I quickly realized that just because we have the films doesn't mean the kids have to watch them (at least not until they are old enough and then they will be required to watch them with me).
So, why do I love Almost Famous enough to have purchased it twice? It's a good question and one I couldn't have fully answered until watching it again. I had forgotten just how much this film makes you love life. I watch it and even through the painful scenes there is a sense of joy that reminds us that some of life's greats wisdom comes from it's most painful movie.
The film is said to be a semi-autobiographical telling of writer/director Cameron Crowe's life. We meet William as a youngster whose college professor mom is trying to provide him and his sister with the cliff notes to life. She has her own bizarre 1970's approaches to parenting such as celebrating Christmas in September and banning rock music such as Simon and Garfunkel. William is not only being pushed to be a lawyer, but he is being pushed to be the youngest lawyer in the country which is why he is 15 during his senior year of high school.
Of course, being 15, William's main interest is rock and roll. He is a talented writer and works on his school newspaper while sending pieces he has written to various rock journals in the area. He gets an assignment from Cream magazine to cover a Black Sabbath show and he meets the opening act Stillwater and hangs out in their dressing room.
He also meets Penny Lane. She is a "groupie" ... sorry, "Band Aid" which would be sad given how young she is if it wasn't for the fact that she seems to have a good enough head on her shoulders to know that eventually she needs to find a new crowd. The one thing standing in her way though is her feeling for Stillwater's lead guitarist Russell.
William's talent catches the eye of Rolling Stone magazine and he is given an assignment to go on tour with Stillwater. From here you can basically put the rest together. William loves Penny, Penny loves Russell, Russell loves the attention Penny gives him and watching the three of them (along with the rest of the cast) tour the country is undeniably intoxicating.
The film's cast is terrific. William is played masterfully by Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup plays the great flawed hero Russell, Frances McDormand is Williams lovingly overbearing mother and add to that Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Lee, Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Fallon, Anna Paquin, and Rain Wilson. All that brings us to Penny Lane who was played by Kate Hudson. I remember seeing this film almost 10 years ago and thinking that Kate Hudson would be the decades greatest actress. Her performance in this film ranks at the very top of the list of all great female performances that I have seen in my life. From the moment we meet Penny Lane she steals the show and every time she is on the screen we can feel the warmth and infatuation Cameron Crowe must have had for his real life band aid. She is every boys first crush and watching her brings back all those feelings you had as a teen when you first meet someone that is actually worth asking out. In fact, I have so much admiration for this performance that I will refrain from going into details about the disaster of cliche filled career she has had since this film.
I am tempted to continue on out of some fear that someone who might read this may not be convinced that they should see this. One personal memory regarding the film I have is that I had one of the best dates of my life seeing this film. I had actually already seen it once, but the film was actually more enjoyable seeing it a second time and seeing it have the same effect on someone I like that it had had on me. Good times.
In all seriousness, I really don't like the movie snob in me who tells people "You haven't seen 'insert mediocre film here', you have to see it!" But, seriously, if you haven't seen Almost Famous you have to see it!