Before Their Time: Almost Famous

By Daniel MacDonald

March 12, 2009

I have to drug all my dates to get them to kiss me, too! We should be each other's dealer/wingman!

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Cameron Crowe is one of the few writer/directors who can get away with making films from a place of raw sincerity, yet somehow he avoids getting too sentimental. Despite being only 52-years-old, the man has lived an extraordinary life, and started early: writing articles for Rolling Stone magazine at 15, touring with the Allman Brothers Band and The Who, writing the liner notes for Frampton Comes Alive at 18, adapting his own book into the Writers Guild Award-nominated screenplay Fast Times at Ridgemont High at 25. He has directed six films to date, penning each of them (including his slavish adaptation of the Spanish film Abre Los Ojos as Vanilla Sky), and in doing so he has injected his journalistic observations on relationships - amongst men and between the sexes - his love of music, and his affection for the underdog into a diverse body of work. Perhaps that's why Crowe's best, most affecting movie is the one based in large part on his own coming-of-age, the vastly underrated Almost Famous.

Opening in the fall of 2000 and grossing just under $33 million domestically, with a reported production budget of $60 million, Almost Famous was clearly not financially successful in its theatrical run. While it has developed somewhat of a following on DVD, which is probably why Crowe continued to secure studio support for follow-up projects, it remains a movie that has never gotten its full due. Full to the brim with emotionally honest dialogue, and believable, unique situations, Almost Famous takes us on several journeys at once. By the time the credits roll, we feel as if we have been on tour with a hard rocking and popular band, we have witnessed a boy becoming a man, and we have developed a new appreciation for the live-wire spirit that was the American music scene in the 1970s.




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There are a lot of places where Almost Famous could have gone horribly wrong, but somehow it never seems to take a wrong turn: Crowe successfully resisted the temptation to impose a classical storytelling structure on this real life odyssey, opting instead to let the messy realities of real life map out each character's arc, and for his trouble he earned a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award. The main character William Miller, played appropriately low-key by newcomer Patrick Fugit, could have easily fallen victim to the allure of drugs, alcohol, and easy women on the road, becoming a misguided jerk that the wise, father figure guitar player has to bring back to save from himself before he falls off the edge. Or William could have learned how to play an instrument, leading to a stand-up-and-cheer finale of him finally fulfilling the dream of playing with the band at Madison Square Garden, perhaps before tragically succumbing to cancer or getting hit by the tour bus. Time and again, we think we know where things must be going, and we are pleasantly surprised when our expectations are subverted. The pressure - to make it more dramatic, more mainstream, more overtly funny or sad - must have been intense, and the fact that it avoids the common cliches of its brethren is a large part of why Almost Famous feels like the product of a singular, unadulterated vision.


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