{"id":14893,"date":"2020-09-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=14893"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:17:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:17:51","slug":"the-pure-sincerity-of-cameron-crowes-almost-famous-remains-a-rare-delight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/the-pure-sincerity-of-cameron-crowes-almost-famous-remains-a-rare-delight\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pure Sincerity of Cameron Crowe\u2019s Almost Famous<\/i> Remains a Rare Delight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most films about journalism are obsessed with the truth\u2014the kind that is verifiable and irrefutable. The \u201870s paranoia pictures, like All the President\u2019s Men<\/em> and The Parallax View<\/em>, or more-contemporary investigative pieces, like David Fincher\u2019s Zodiac<\/em> and Tom McCarthy\u2019s Spotlight<\/em>, or the now-rare newsroom comedy, like Broadcast News<\/em>. As a field, journalism is meant to be simultaneously objective and nuanced, and we expect that the individuals whom we entrust to communicate all that to us be detail-oriented and thorough, unencumbered by personal bias or special interests. \u201cYou have to make your reputation on being honest, and, you know, unmerciful,\u201d legendary music critic Lester Bangs (an achingly good Philip Seymour Hoffman) tells aspiring 15-year-old journalist William Miller (a fresh-faced, wonderfully guileless Patrick Fugit) in Almost Famous<\/em>. And what Cameron Crowe\u2019s film makes clear, as his filmography so often does, is that emotional truth\u2014what or who you love, why, and how\u2014is just as important as the kind of fact you can prove. It might not be quantifiable, but that doesn\u2019t make it any less meaningful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crowe\u2019s filmography is defined by his deep love for the outsized gesture, a preference that began amusingly (with Sean Penn\u2019s Spicoli getting pizza delivered to his classroom in Fast Times at Ridgemont High<\/em>) before transforming into expressions of sentiment and romance. John Cusack\u2019s overhead boombox blasting Peter Gabriel\u2019s \u201cIn Your Eyes\u201d in Say Anything\u2026<\/em>. Tom Cruise\u2019s \u201cYou complete me\u201d declaration, coupled with Ren\u00e9e Zellweger\u2019s \u201cYou had me at hello,\u201d in Jerry Maguire<\/em>. Matt Damon\u2019s impulsive purchase of a zoo to help his family heal after his wife\u2019s death in, uh, We Bought a Zoo<\/em>. The consistency here is not just Crowe\u2019s propensity for all-white casts (the less said about Aloha<\/em>, the better), but his steadfast belief that the grandness of a moment determines its worth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within that frame, Almost Famous<\/em>, released 20 years ago this week, is Crowe\u2019s masterpiece, a semi-autobiographical work packed, from beginning to end, with considerations of yearning, longing, and desire. A hand held a little too long, eyes that meet across a room, a secret shared in confidence, a song sung together: Almost Famous<\/em> is built on the intimacy that develops between people all in love with the same thing. Like Pump Up the Volume<\/em><\/a> before it, Almost Famous<\/em> incorporated the music of a generation to complement the film\u2019s depiction of a youthful quest for freedom. \u201cYou missed out on rock and roll. It\u2019s over,\u201d Lester insists to William, but that\u2019s not quite right. The Bohemian ideals of truth, beauty, freedom, and love are still alluring, and Almost Famous<\/em> puts us in the shoes of a young man whose otherness might make him the perfect audience for that seduction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In San Diego in 1969, child prodigy William (a freckled Michael Angarano) is bright, kind, and obviously far younger than the other kids in his grade. He\u2019s aware that his college professor mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand, at her most no-bullshit), rubs nearly everyone the wrong way with her resolute personality, but he loves her anyway, proudly holding her hand as they walk down the street and energetically chat about To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>. At home, William acts as a neutral third party when Elaine butts heads with his sister, Anita (Zooey Deschanel), over her boyfriend, her musical choices, and her desire to be a stewardess. When 18-year-old Anita moves out, she leaves William her cache of records, a collection of musicians that Elaine had summarily dismissed as all being \u201con pot.\u201d Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan. In one of the film\u2019s many notable lines, Anita instructs William to \u201clisten to Tommy<\/em> with a candle burning and you will see your entire future,\u201d and soaking up The Who changes his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years later, the boy who once idolized Atticus Finch is now a shaggy-haired, messenger-bag-toting, aspiring rock journalist, still mocked by his classmates for his youth (\u201cWilliam Miller is too young to drive or fuck\u201d reads the sign outside of his high school, a prank at which most everyone laughs). While Elaine puts up with his writing by thinking it\u2019s a short-term hobby, William ends up under the wing of the infamous writer and publisher Lester Bangs, who tries to teach him some of the ironclad rules of interviewing and observing musicians, and about separating fandom and criticism. \u201cThese people are not your friends,\u201d Lester warns, but for William\u2014who has never had any\u2014it sure seems like they might be. And when he meets self-described \u201cBand Aid\u201d Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), a young woman who seems to know every famous musician, who approaches life with a knowing look and a quick smile, and who is beloved by practically everyone, she seems to share his approach. \u201cIf you ever get lonely, just go to the record store and visit your friends,\u201d Penny says, and she might be the closest thing to a soul mate William has ever had. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penny serves as William\u2019s introduction to the on-the-rise band Stillwater, about whom William is assigned to write a 3,000-word piece for the revered Rolling Stone<\/em> magazine. \u201cIt\u2019s all happening,\u201d Penny is fond of saying, and so it seems to be for William. With Elaine\u2019s permission, as long as William doesn\u2019t miss more than four days of school and one test, he joins Penny, the rest of the Band Aids, and Stillwater on their nationwide tour. Their travels across the country provide the stimulus for William\u2019s coming of age: He steps out of Elaine\u2019s shadow, he falls in love with Penny, and he grows as a writer. Initially a fan of Stillwater\u2014lead singer Jeff (Jason Lee); guitarist Russell (Billy Crudup), with whom Penny is having an affair; bassist Ed (Mark Kozelek); and drummer Ed (John Fedevich)\u2014William grows closer to the band as they let him into their circle. But is this really a friendship, when there is so much about it that is transactional? Where do William\u2019s responsibilities as a storyteller begin, and how does he reconcile that role with the camaraderie he might otherwise feel? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Almost Famous<\/em>\u2019s broad cast of characters allows Crowe to thoughtfully explore the melancholic loneliness that fame and success can bring. From the perspective of Stillwater, a band who might not be prepared to blow up, especially not when Jeff and Russell are so often at each other\u2019s throats. From the perspective of the Band Aids, in particular Penny, who are treated by Stillwater not as equals or muses but as disposable property, companions for the tour but not for life. From the perspective of William, who realizes that the musicians he so admires might not be very nice people; from Elaine, who worries for her son but believes in her heart that every person deserves a second chance, even a corrupted rock star like Russell; and from Lester, who wants to protect William from what he considers the soul-deadening \u201cindustry of cool.\u201d Almost Famous<\/em> is, on first watch, very much William\u2019s story: a boy coming into his own, realizing his own potential, and seizing the opportunity that he was given. But with some distance, the film seems less like a regurgitation of Crowe\u2019s own adolescence and more like a memorial for a time when giving your whole heart to something felt like a risk worth taking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider the film\u2019s emotional zenith, in which a whole bus of people who were previously feuding set aside their differences for a spontaneous sing-along of Elton John\u2019s \u201cTiny Dancer.\u201d Many gorgeous songs have been included in the film so far  (Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s \u201cAmerica\u201d) and many more are still to come (Cat Stevens\u2019s \u201cThe Wind,\u201d Stevie Wonder\u2019s \u201cMy Cherie Amour\u201d), but they\u2019re used for scenes of individual reflection. \u201cAmerica\u201d plays as William explores Anita\u2019s gifted records; \u201cThe Wind\u201d as Penny dances by herself in a dirty concert hall Stillwater has just played; \u201cMy Cherie Amour\u201d as William watches Penny throw up the overdose of Quaaludes that could have killed her. \u201cTiny Dancer,\u201d is contrast, brings the entire group together: Stillwater, the roadies, their manager, Penny, the Band Aids, William. United in their love of the song, which describes the relationship between the singer and his paramour, who happens to be a music fan (\u201cLooking on, she sings the songs\/The words she knows, the tune she hums\u201d). And united in their love for each other: \u201cHow it feels so real,\u201d Elton sings, and they all follow along in that moment, when the road is home and friends are family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows for Stillwater wouldn\u2019t be as idyllic\u2014myriad backstabbing between bandmates, their betrayal of Penny and William both, and a near-death experience\u2014but ultimately those transgressions serve to make the \u201cTiny Dancer\u201d scene even warmer and more transcendent. Crowe has spent the rest of his career chasing the purity of that moment, but nothing the filmmaker has done since has come quite close. It endures, raw and fragile and beautiful in its own way. \u201cThe only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you\u2019re uncool\u201d are Lester\u2019s final words of wisdom to William in Almost Famous<\/em>, and they capture the bonds that can form when mystique is abandoned and vulnerability takes its place. That sincerity, too, is a form of truth.\u00a0\"\"\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you\u2019re uncool.\u201d A look back at \u2018Almost Famous,\u2019 released 20 years ago this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":582,"featured_media":14896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1399,1428],"tags":[1429,1422,162],"class_list":["post-14893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-looking-back","category-happy-birthday","tag-happy-birthday","tag-looking-back","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/582"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22727,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14893\/revisions\/22727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}