02/14/10 - Almost Famous

Almost Famous (2000, 162 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181875/

Sabrina was picked somewhat hastily. Almost Famous was picked purposefully for Valentine's Day viewing. Almost Famous represents a lot of things: a love for watching Zooey Deschanel, a love of movies about music, a love for amazing soundtracks, and finally a love for masterfully put together movies.

The film stars a young student, William Miller (Patrick Fugit) as he follows a band on tour and writes an article for Rolling Stone. His family is mother Elaine Miller (Frances McDormand) who is afraid of the whole ordeal and his sister Anita Miller (Zooey Deschanel) who wants William to follow his dreams. The band of Stillwater is: lead guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee), bassist Larry Fellows (Mark Kozelek), drummer Ed Vallencourt (John Fedevich), and manager Dick Roswell (Noah Taylor). The "groupies" (called Band-Aides) are led by Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) but also feature Polexia Aphrodisia (Anna Paquin) and Sapphire (Fairuza Balk). Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays Lester Bangs, a fellow journalist and mentor figure for the young William.

As you can see from above, the cast here is huge. And each of these actors progresses the plot along in their own unique way. The main cast is the complicated relationship web created by Elaine, William, Penny, and Russell. I actually wrote them down this order for a reason: Elaine cares about William, Williams cares about Penny, Penny cares about Russell and Russell doesn't know who to care about. McDormand's Elaine doesn't feature prominently in a whole lot of scenes compared to the other three but she sure does great every time she's on camera. The dialogue of her character is priceless and creates a stereotypical character but one with her own quirks and nuances that enhances the stereotype to actually make her unique. Next, Fugit is one of the few examples of a kid actor really doing well. A few times he overacts though and it seems silly, but for the most part he's just as good as the rest of the great cast. I feel the only time he really goes overboard is when he is yelling or screaming (except for in the airplane near the end where he's fine). Hudson's Penny Lane is probably the most memorable of the group. I can't say anything about her acting that sets her apart from the rest of the group. This doesn't mean it's bad, just that it's equally great. But I say her character is the most memorable because of the emotion she conveys. Even on this, my third, viewing of the film, I'm torn between liking her and not liking her. I mean, I know exactly what her character is going to do, but everytime it seems fresh and I go through the same feelings of anguish at liking Penny. Finally, there's Crudup as Russell. Crudup plays Russell in such a way that you alternate from really liking him to absolutely hating him to liking him again. So he's similar to Penny in this respect and that works great for the interplay between their characters. This twisting and turning feeling is all a testament to how well Crudup owns the role in my opinion.

I'd like to also single out a paragraph for Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character of Lester Bangs. On each watch I like Lester more and more. The character is placed away from all the others. He really only interacts with William in around three or four scenes - and usually then by telephone. I get a feeling that Lester serves as a sort of viewer. He's seen everything that William has gone through and then kind of tells him where he should go next, helping him out along the way. He talks with such self-loathing though that it's impossible to dislike the character. He's uncool, he proclaims rock and roll music dead, and above all he's relentless in his honesty. Maybe he's the only honest character throughout the whole film and that's why I like him so much. As I sit here thinking about my favorite scene with Lester I keep alternating back and forth. I can honestly say that every scene of his is superbly done. Perhaps overlooked when glancing over the movie as a whole, I feel Lester Bangs is an integral part of the whole experience of Almost Famous.

The one thing I want to say about the acting on a whole now is a little thing. One thing I look for in a seriously good movie like this is acting "with the eyes." By this I mean small things like facial expressions and just glances and things like that. In pretty much every single character in Almost Famous I feel there's excellent acting with the eyes. It's a small thing but I really feel like it really makes the characters seem real, like these people aren't acting at all. And I really feel that overall I'm watching these people exist instead of actors playing people in a movie. Russell Hammond exists, not Billy Crudup as Russell Hammond if that makes sense. All the characters are developed because of this small feature of the movie and even the smaller and less important roles seem fleshed out and real. For example, the drummer Vallencourt is always drumming on stuff. It's a little quirk but it makes him seem real to me. I mean, I figure lots of drummers do this, but it still makes the character seem natural. Another example is how Polexia is always near Jeff. While the romance here is seen really only fleetingly in but maybe one or two scenes, just having these characters always sit next to each other on the bus, plane, or wherever makes the relationship seem authentic. I guess that's the word I was looking for to describe the acting as a whole: authentic. Everyone seems really in their role.

Almost Famous tells a pretty basic story but it does it in such an amazing way. Though not living in the 1970s at all, I felt like Almost Famous transported me back in time to that period and let me be a fly on the wall to everything that was going on back then. Director Cameron Crowe also seems to throw in a bunch of things just to tribute stuff he liked as a kid in music or experienced himself as a journalist. Little shots like the Pink Floyd prism flashing across a windshield or how when the band arrives in New York City they arrive in a style very similar to that of Led Zeppelin in The Song Remains the Same. These little things really make the movie and, like the acting, make the story extremely immersing. At one point in the movie Russell tells William about music being about the little things, like one yell in a Marvin Gaye song. Almost Famous takes the same formula. It really is a film about the little things. On each and every rewatch of this film I gain a new appreciation for what Crowe has put together, making both a fantastic movie with an almost infinite rewatch factor (in my opinion) and one that features so many little tributes.

I cannot stress enough how well some of the scenes in Almost Famous are. First and foremost is the ending scene. This final conversation between William and Russell requires me to turn up the volume each and every watch. The choice of Led Zeppelin's "Tangerine" creates near movie bliss. The following montage is perfectly set to the song as well. The song itself is about love in its first and most innocent stages and it blends perfectly with William as he's writing about his love of music. The next best scene is the bus scene where everyone spontaneously breaks into "Tiny Dancer" and Penny tells William that he's "home." Just as in the previous scene, no matter how many times I watch this I get goosebumps at the emotion it creates. Every time I see the scene I sing along to "Tiny Dancer" as I get those goosebumps. These two scenes are easily the best in the film to me, but there's a plethora of other great ones as well. In fact, pretty much any time the film really plays a song in the soundtrack we are treated to a memorable scene. Stuff like "That's the Way" or "The Rain Song" or "Misty Mountain Hop" all by Led Zeppelin are featured in great scenes and tie in amazingly well. Other stuff like "Sparks" by The Who, "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" by Neil Young, or "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" by Elton John are all also used to perfection in their respective scenes. When I think of great soundtracks there's only two films that immediately come to mind and one of those is Almost Famous (the other being The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Seriously: every song fits perfectly in Almost Famous. Crowe did such a fantastic job I could go on and on about it but there's only so many different ways you can say "perfect."

Finally, Almost Famous has a immeasurable aura about it. It creates a unique emotional response in me for some weird reason. Perhaps, as I mentioned in the first paragraph it's because it brings together a lot of things that I love; perhaps it's because it features a kid doing something that I feel would be an amazing thrill ride and something I probably would have dreamed of doing had I been born twenty-five or so years earlier; perhaps it's because it features a group of actors that create such great characters that after a while you no longer see them as acting but as actual, real, fleshed out people in a real life movie or something; or perhaps it's because it's all just a great blend of all these things. No movie matches the gut feeling I get when I watch Almost Famous. That's not to say it's better than some other movies (stuff like Ferris Bueller's Day Off or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are still better movies in my opinion and I like them more) but it holds a unique place in my heart and soul.

Overall, I gave this film a 10/10. Almost Famous is, simply put, perfectly put together. The pacing is amazing, the acting is amazing, the soundtrack is beyond amazing. Everything flows smoothly together and works so well together. Add in everything I said in the previous paragraph and you have a 10/10 from me.