Almost Famous

Plot

In 1969 San Diego, child prodigy William Miller struggles to fit in with his peers. His mother Elaine, a widowed college professor, further complicates his life by starting him early in school and leading him to believe he is 13 years old, when he is in fact 11. Furthermore, Elaine's strict ban on rock music and her fear of pop culture have a lasting effect on her two children, finally driving William's 18-year-old sister Anita to move to San Francisco and become a flight attendant.

In 1973, William, now 15 and influenced by Anita's secret cache of rock albums, aspires to be a rock journalist, writing freelance articles for underground music magazines. Impressed by William's writing, rock journalist Lester Bangs gives him a $35 writing assignment to interview Black Sabbath at a concert. William is barred from the backstage until the opening band Stillwater arrives and William flatters his way in. Lead guitarist Russell Hammond takes a liking to William, as does Penny Lane, the leader of a groupie-like collective called "Band-Aids", a term she coined to describe female fans who follow bands to support the music, not just for sex.

After reading some of William's articles in a San Diego underground paper, Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres hires him to write an article about Stillwater and sends him on the road with the band. William interviews the other band members, but guitarist Russell Hammond avoids a formal sit-down interview. Tensions mount between Hammond and lead singer Jeff Bebe, as the former becomes the more prominent member. The band jokingly refers to journalist William as "the enemy", but he eventually integrates into their inner circle.

Professional road manager Dennis Hope is brought in to handle problems with venues and promoters. He stops the band touring by bus, instead chartering a small plane to play more gigs. Penny has to leave before the band reaches New York, where Russell's girlfriend Leslie is joining them. Penny and three other girls are gambled away to another band in a poker game; Penny acts nonchalant but is devastated.

At a party in a New York restaurant, William informs the group they are being featured on the Rolling Stone cover. Penny shows up uninvited, but leaves after her attempts to get Russell's attention become disruptive. William follows Penny to her hotel, where he saves her from overdosing on quaaludes. The next day, the band encounters severe weather during their flight. Fearing the plane will crash, everyone confesses long-concealed secrets and the simmering conflict between Jeff and Russell erupts. William confesses his love for Penny after Jeff insults her. The plane lands safely, leaving everyone to ponder the changed atmosphere.

Production

Cameron Crowe used a composite of the bands he had known to create Stillwater, the emerging group that welcomes the young journalist into its sphere, then becomes wary of his intentions. "Stillwater" was the name of a real band signed to Macon, Georgia's Capricorn Records label, which required the film's producers to obtain permission to use the name. In an interview, real Stillwater guitarist Bobby Golden said, "They could have probably done it without permission but they probably would have had a bunch of different lawsuits. Our lawyer got in touch with them. They wanted us to do it for free and I said, 'No we're not doing it for free.' So we got a little bit of change out of it." Seventies rocker Peter Frampton served as a technical consultant on the film. Crowe and his then-wife, musician Nancy Wilson of Heart, co-wrote three of the five Stillwater songs in the film, and Frampton wrote the other two, with Mike McCready of Pearl Jam playing lead guitar on all of the Stillwater songs.

Patrick Fugit, then "a complete unknown from Salt Lake City, Utah", was cast late in the process after Crowe and casting director Gail Levin watched Fugit's self-taped audition.

The character of Russell Hammond was originally set to be played by Brad Pitt. However, during rehearsal prior to filming, Crowe and Pitt mutually decided that it was "not the right fit", and Pitt dropped out of the project. The line "I am a golden god!" in the pool-jumping sequence, as well as numerous references to Russell Hammond being unusually good looking, were written for Pitt but remained in the script after Billy Crudup was cast. In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Crowe confirmed that the "golden god" scene was inspired by Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant, who had uttered the sentence on a "Riot House" balcony.

Crowe based the character of Penny Lane on the real-life Pennie Lane Trumbull and her group of female promoters who called themselves the "Flying Garter Girls Group". Though they were not in the Flying Garter Girls group, various other women have been described as Crowe's inspiration, for instance Pamela Des Barres and Bebe Buell. Sarah Polley was originally cast as Penny Lane, but, when Brad Pitt dropped out, she dropped out as well. Natalie Portman and Kirsten Dunst were also considered, but Kate Hudson was finally cast for the role. According to Crowe, she "hung in and had turned down leads in other movies just to play the part" and soon obtained it "because of her loyalty". For her performance, Hudson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, among others.

Soundtrack

The Almost Famous soundtrack album was released by DreamWorks Records on September 12, 2000. It was awarded the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

Personnel

Jason Lee ("Jeff Bebe") - vocals

Billy Crudup ("Russell Hammond") - guitar

Mark Kozelek ("Larry Fellows") - bass guitar

John Fedevich ("Ed Vallencourt") - drums

Nancy Wilson

Peter Frampton

Mike McCready

Jon Bayless

Ben Smith

Gordon Kennedy

Marti Frederiksen – vocals

Simon & Garfunkel: "America" – 3:37

The Who: "Sparks" – 3:48

Todd Rundgren: "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference" – 3:51

Yes: "Your Move" – 3:33

The Beach Boys: "Feel Flows" – 4:43

Stillwater: "Fever Dog" – 3:09

Rod Stewart: "Every Picture Tells a Story" – 5:54

The Seeds: "Mr Farmer" – 2:51

The Allman Brothers Band: "One Way Out" – 4:58

Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Simple Man" – 5:56

Led Zeppelin: "That's the Way" – 5:36

Elton John: "Tiny Dancer" – 6:14

Reception

Box office

Almost Famous had its premiere at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival. It was subsequently given a limited release on September 15, 2000, in 131 theaters where it grossed $2.3 million on its first weekend. It was given a wider release on September 22, 2000, in 1,193 theaters where it grossed $6.9 million on its opening weekend. The film went on to make $31.7 million in North America and $14.8 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $47.4 million against a $60 million budget.

Critical response

Almost Famous was acclaimed by a number of critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 91% approval rating, based on 229 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Almost Famous, with its great ensemble performances and story, is a well-crafted, warm-hearted movie that successfully draws you into its era." On Metacritic it has a score of 90 out of 100, based on 38 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, naming it the best film of 2000, and described it as "funny and touching in so many different ways." In his review for The New York Times, A.O. Scott wrote, "The movie's real pleasures are to be found not in its story but in its profusion of funny, offbeat scenes. It's the kind of picture that invites you to go back and savor your favorite moments like choice album cuts." Richard Corliss of Time praised the film's screenplay for "giving each character his reasons, making everyone in the emotional debate charming and compelling, creating fictional people who breathe in a story with an organic life."

In her review for the L.A. Weekly, Manohla Dargis wrote that "the film shimmers with the irresistible pleasures that define Hollywood at its best—it's polished like glass, funny, knowing and bright, and filled with characters whose lives are invariably sexier and more purposeful than our own." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "Not since A Hard Day's Night has a movie caught the thrumming exuberance of going where the music takes you."

In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen wrote, "Character-driven, it relies on chemistry, camaraderie, a sharp eye for detail and good casting." Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Every Cameron Crowe film is, in one way or another, about romance, rock & roll, and his romance with rock & roll. This power ballad of a movie, from 2000, also happens to be Crowe's greatest (and most personal) film thanks to the golden gods of Stillwater and their biggest fan, Kate Hudson's incomparable Penny Lane."

Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A−" rating and Owen Gleiberman praised Crowe for depicting the 1970s as "an era that found its purpose in having no purpose. Crowe, staying close to his memories, has gotten it, for perhaps the first time, onto the screen." In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan praised Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Lester Bangs: "Superbly played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, more and more the most gifted and inspired character actor working in film, what could have been the clichéd portrait of an older mentor who speaks the straight truth blossoms into a marvelous personality." However, in his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris felt that "none of the non-musical components on the screen matched the excitement of the music. For whatever reason, too much of the dark side has been left out." Desson Howe, in his review for The Washington Post, found it "very hard to see these long-haired kids as products of the 1970s instead of dressed up actors from the Seattle-Starbucks era. I couldn't help wondering how many of these performers had to buy a CD copy of the song and study it for the first time."

Publication of Rolling Stone article

In 2021, Rolling Stone published the article "Stillwater Runs Deep!" by "William Miller", backdated to August 30, 1973.

Home media

Almost Famous was released on DVD and VHS by DreamWorks Home Entertainment on March 13, 2001. In December 2001, an extended cut of the film, also known as the "Bootleg" or "Untitled" version, was released on DVD. The extended version has about 40 minutes of additional footage.

In February 2006, Viacom (now known as Paramount Skydance) acquired the domestic rights to Almost Famous, along with the rights to all 58 other live-action films DreamWorks had released since 1997, following its $1.6 billion acquisition of the company's live-action film assets and television assets. A remastered Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray of both versions was released by Paramount Home Entertainment on July 13, 2021.

Stage musical adaptation

In 2018, Crowe wrote the stage musical adaptation of the film, and developed the musical numbers with Tom Kitt. It premiered in San Diego at The Old Globe in 2019 with creative work continuing during the COVID-19 pandemic. It moved to Broadway, premiering on November 3, 2022 and closed on January 8th, 2023. The cast of the production, directed by Jeremy Herrin, included newcomer Casey Likes (in his Broadway acting debut) as William Miller, Chris Wood as Russell Hammond, Anika Larsen as Elaine Miller, Solea Pfeiffer as Penny Lane, Drew Gehling as Jeff Bebe, Emily Schultheis as Anita Miller, Jana Djenne Jackson as Polexia Aphrodisia, Katie Ladner as Sapphire, Gerard Canonico as Dick Roswell and Rob Colletti as Lester Bangs.