You know them, you've all seen them, you may have even been one of them yourself, but you'll never tell. It's those starry eyed young kids with fake IDs hanging out on the periphery of the tribal rock world, impersonating older humans and yearning to be invited in. Writer/director Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire), who knows from personal experience about being on the outside looking in as a fifteen year old wannabe rock 'n roll journalist, takes us down his version of musical memory lane in Almost Famous.
Crowe embellishes fact with fiction in the retelling of his own coming of age in the early '70s as a precocious high school kid. With a little ingenuity and lots of deception, he pulls off infiltrating rock journalism effectively enough to land a cover story writing assigment about hot band Clearwater for Rolling Stone. Crowe's determined young adventurer, called William and reincarnated in newcomer Patrick Fugit, maneuvers smoothly between hitting the road on tour with the band and sort of running away from home with mom's fretful permission.
William gets inspired by his rebellious older sister, who flees the household of their eccentric single mother (Francis McDormand) in curlers to become a stewardess. First entrusting her forbidden rock collection stash to him, she assures William that the musical messages therein will one day transform him into solidly cool.
Coming up with a game plan to cross over from stage door stalker and juvenile fan to celebrity journalist is no easy feat. William first taps into the head of a wise but cynical rock scribe for Creme, the late real life Lester Bangs (a freakishly brilliant performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman). Check out Hoffman's upstaging turn as the prophetic rock philosopher thoroughly disgusted by the music's fatal wrong turn from poetry into profit, and his more personal intermittent dissertation on the advantageous righteousness of being outcast and uncool.
Alternately bombarded with the mixed messages of Lester's creative warning to be 'honest and unmerciful' and avoid record company bribes to do otherwise, and mom's admonitions to stay away from drugs, William seemingly too easily finds himself taking on the Rolling Stone cover assignment even though he has no writing experience, and however reality based. Not to mention being swept into the inner circle of Clearwater's lead guitarist Russell (Billy Crudup) on their Almost Famous big tour; groupie groped by gorgeous girls; and bewitched by Russell's elusive flower child lover Penny Lane (Kate Hudson doing mostly Mona Lisa).
The generously endowed nostalgic soundtrack of Almost Famous rivals any awesome concert you might have attended otherwise. And the original tracks composed for the fictional band Clearwater by Crowe's wife Nancy Wilson (formerly of Heart) and complemented by technical consultant and Crowe appointed 'headmaster' Peter Frampton's advice on how to look and play like a real band, make them a cut above the usual canned sounds compiled for celluloid.
There also are some genuinely transcendent moments that remind us why music is one of the basic necessities of life. Like when the band and groupies alike magically bond while cruising down the highway, breaking together into a song and entering unplugged and entranced as seemingly one into that altered state of communal musical bliss. Or as somebody sums it up: Rock 'n roll chooses you.
That said, Almost Famous almost but not quite takes you there, or quite measures up to the gritty and melancholy sound, mood and tone of the period rockumentaries. What's missing is the depth, meaning and stubborn purity that fed the music, and that was defined so specifically by that troubled yet euphoric time.
Maybe it's because the events are viewed through the only partially comprehending perceptions of a child's eyes. Or maybe because the play for profit mode of art today, which the story anticipates and mourns, is so apparent in the slick, flashy visuals and hi-tech production values of this re-creation of a far more earthy and home grown musical journey.