Don’t take drugs!!!!
I guess that’s the one thing you should take away from this one. Just a little background on my watch history with Almost Famous—I’ve seen this movie about three times. The first time was with my friends at midnight on cable, where we clicked onto it during the scene where Russell and William abandon the band and go to a local high school party. So that time I had no grasp of the plot or what the story was about. The second time I watched was on my own time but it was about 5 months prior this review. Lastly, the third time I watched this movie was on a plane about 2 weeks ago; So, I feel I have a better understanding and more fresh opinions.
Anyway let’s get down to the actual movie. Almost Famous is a Comedy/Drama released in 2000 which follows the dream of a young teen boy who loves Rock and Roll trying to trailblaze his own path in journalism. William Miller (Patrick Fugit), grows up seeing his rebellious sister idol artists of the end of the classic rock era into the late 60s and beginning of the 70s. William, thus looking up to his sister, is handed down a stack of records from her when he was really young and his life path forever changed after that. While William struggles to achieve an interview with Black Sabbath at one of their shows nearby, he gets in to the show with the band Stillwater. He forms a connection with two very important characters that one night, Russell and Penny. Russell and Penny prove to be very important to each other too. In a nutshell, William is invited to follow Stillwater on their “Almost Famous” tour, writing about what he sees and experiencing the trip of a lifetime.
The Pros
The casting on this movie was a huge plus. Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit, and Billy Crudup made a great trio that pursued a different angle of this story involving the love story between Russell and Penny, but then also William’s eventual love for Penny down the road.
Speaking of different angles of the story, Almost Famous had about three different stories wrapped up in it. The journey of William as a journalist away from his mother; the story of Penny Lane; and the story of the band. Penny Lane I think is really the main focus of the movie, while the band is the background and William is torn between becoming friends with Russell while also recording authentically the events the band goes through.
I was a general fan of Russell as a character in the movie. I liked his chill attitude and the way he treated William and how their relationship developed throughout the plot. I was also a fan of the last few scenes of the movie. Specifically, when Russell is sent by Penny to apologize for ruining William’s story. Russell told him he could say whatever he wanted to Rolling Stone (The publisher William was writing for) and then outed him for it and subsequently stopped William’s big article from surfacing.
The Cons
Penny Lane.
I just didn’t like her character. It didn’t matter what she did to Russell or his wife and the way she acted, I just straight up didn’t like her as a character. But I will have to admit that the story doesn’t make sense without her as everything sort of revolves around Penny Lane.
I think this other critique falls victim to the time period and the style of movies around the late 90s and into the 2000s, but it is another movie that felt long. It comes in at 2 hours and 2 minutes which is reasonable for a comedy, maybe a little on the long side but that was just my general feeling around the runtime.
Almost Famous, I give you almost good – The Shobe Score is a 75.