Almost Famous (2000)
The only true currency, in this bankrupt world, is what you share with someone else when you’re UNCOOL.
Almost Famous is a comedy and touching drama set in 1973 about William Miller, a 15 year old played by Patrick Fugit. His love of rock music lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview the up and coming band Stillwater - fronted by lead guitar Russell Hammond played by Billy Crudup and lead singer Jeff Bebe played by Jason Lee. William ventures on an eye-opening journey with the band's tour, despite the objections of his protective mother.
Source : Rolling Stone
This film is the semi-autobiography of the writer/director Cameron Crowe, who himself had toured with many bands during his teenage years while working for the Rolling Stone. The screenplay thus feels very personal and real. The acting was remarkable by every one in the film, especially by Kate Hudson, who plays Penny Lane – the “Retired Band-Aid” for Stillwater. We see Penny Lane through the eyes of William who struggles to understand her trying to hide herself in the “cool world” and ends up falling in love with her, even though everyone around her, especially the one everyone idolizes just uses her as a “Band-Aid”.
Even though this movie was released almost 20 years after the prime era of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the world Crowe created combined with the superb acting made me feel like I am living in the 70’s. I was feeling weirdly nostalgic about it even through i was not alive that time.
The film clocks in for more than two and half hours but still did not feel that way, mostly because I was very much invested into the lives Willam, Penny Lane and Stillwater and felt like I was experiencing this world with them. Even Stillwater being a fictional band, it very much felt like a real band of the 70’s and the song ‘Fever Dog’ is a quite a banger or to put it well “its incendiary” 😉
The major theme of this film is about the struggle between the aspects of being cool or being sincere with oneself, as Lester Bangs (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) puts it beautifully to emotional William over a phone call:
The only true currency, in this bankrupt world, is what you share with someone else when you’re UNCOOL……I am always home, I am uncool.
If you are looking for a feel good, coming of the age movie, which shows the power of music and how it unites us as human beings, I believe this is one of the best movies from our generation. And you will love it even more if you happen to be a fan of 60’s and 70’s rock music.