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Cast
William
Miller (Patrick Fugit)
Russell
Hammond (Billy Crudup)
Jeff
Bebe (Jason Lee)
Penny
Lane (Kate Hudson)
Lester
Bangs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman)
Mrs.
Miller (Frances McDormand)
Written
and Directed by Cameron Crowe
Rated
R for language, drug content and brief nudity
Running
Time: 122 minutes Distributed by Dreamworks
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the Poster
Almost
Famous is a great and touching movie from writer and director
Cameron Crowe. The film takes place in 1973 and centers on
the character of William Miller (Fugit), who is a 15-year-old
writer that loves Rock-n-Roll. William surprisingly receives
an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to go on the road
and write an article on the hot new band Stillwater. Despite
the feelings from his straight arrow mother (McDormand), William
is soon on the road with the band. The star of the band is
the lead guitarist Russell Hammond (Crudup), who has a slight
problem of finding reality. The lead singer is Jeff Bebe (Lee),
who has problems with Russell getting most of the credit for
the band's work. There are also the "band-aids", who some
would refer to as the groupies. The so-called leader of the
"band-aids" is the free-spirited Penny Lane (Hudson), who
catches the interest of William and becomes the one person
he can connect with. While trying to interview and put together
a good article for Rolling Stone, William is lead upon a journey
of soul-searching, love and maturity that he will never forget.
I
really loved Almost Famous, it is just a brilliant movie that
is full of real-life experience and heart.
Writer-Director
Cameron Crowe based the film and the character of William
off of his experiences as a journalist. Crowe was a writer
for Rolling Stone at 16 years old that traveled with bands
like The Eagles, The Allman Brothers, Lynard Skynard and Led
Zeppelin. He is a huge music lover that eventually became
editor of Rolling Stone magazine. The script is one of the
best to come out of Hollywood this year. It is completely
original and very creative. Almost all of the characters are
memorable and unforgettable. The plot points shyly surface
and steadily pace the film. Crowe, who also wrote Say Anything
and Jerry Maguire, always creates a story of ambition through
touching and funny dialogue. Though most of the good lines
in Almost Famous will not stick around like "You complete
me" and "Show me the money" from Jerry Maguire, I found the
script to have a few stand out lines. An example is when Russell
is about to jump off a roof into a swimming pool and he say,
"I am a golden god." I could also tell that Crowe got the
most out of his cast of talented actors. Cameron Crowe is
the reason that this movie is so good, because he is reliving
through his past experiences. He has lived and been around
all the incidents in the movie. I was once told that the best
stories to write or tell are the ones from your own experience,
which is the reason I believe Crowe's writing is so terrific.
Everyone
in the cast of Almost Famous delivers pretty good acting.
Billy Crudup, who is a very underrated actor, delivers a superb
performance as the guitarist Russell Hammond. Hopefully this
performance will open the door to stardom for Crudup, because
he deserves it. What is interesting about the Russell Hammond
character is that Crudup wasn't Crowe first choice for the
role. Brad Pitt was originally attached to the role, but the
studio could not pay him enough money, so Crowe cast Crudup.
Jason Lee, who is usually anal and vulgar, delivers a steady
and one of his best performances as lead singer Jeff Bebe.
Kate Hudson delivers probably the female breakthrough performance
of the year as the band-aid Penny Lane. Hudson has some skills
and is definitely a star in the making. Newcomer Patrick Fugit
was impressive with his first acting role as the film's central
character William. Last but not least, Frances McDormand and
Phillip Seymour Hoffman deliver dynamite performances as William's
two mentors in the film. Remember some of these names come
Oscar time.
Almost
Famous is one of the best films of the year. It is a touching;
funning and moral story that I believe audiences will flock
too. This film has a good chance to receive a lot of Oscar
nominations.
Report
Card Grade: A
Beastman's
Movie Reviews
Joseph
C Tucker
Copyright,
2000 Joseph C. Tucker, reprinted with kind permission.
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