Number 369 on the top 1000 films of all time is Cameron Crowe's 2000 comedy-drama 'Almost Famous.'
William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is an aspiring journalist living under the thumb of his oppressive mother Elaine during the early 1970's. (Frances Mcdormand.) At the urging of his older sister, he starts rebelling by listening to rock music. But then music magazine editor Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) takes him under his wing. To further his career, William then joins rock band Stillwater as they tour the US.
This was an entertaining, if not amazing, coming-of-age drama ticking off all the boxes you would expect from the genre. You had William as the lost teenage protagonist looking for direction life his oppressive, over-protective parental figure - Elaine and the mentor character of Lester Bangs.
I think Frances Mcdormand showed why she went onto win three best Actress Oscars, as she was great as William's mother. It would be all too easy to play her as a cartoonish caricature, but Elaine's overprotective nature felt all too real. She was never being malicious or over-the-top, but she just wanted the best for her son.
Yet she wasn't the only future Oscar winner in the cast, as we also saw Philip Seymour Hoffman in a supporting role. He was one of the most versatile actors of his generation and he put that to good use playing William's mentor. It's a shame he didn't have more screentime - then again, he was suffering from the flu when filming, so perhaps that was for the best.
Cameron Crowe won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for his semi-autobiographical script loosely based on his own experiences writing for Rolling Stone Magazine in the seventies. Almost Famous certainly had an air of realism to it.
Although the film lost something when William started following Stillwater around the US. The exploration of the band wasn't as deep as it could have been with much of the tension focussing on the conflict between the lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) and lead guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) with the rest of the band being largely forgotten about. Having said that, it's probably quite a common occurrence in most bands.
This film was enjoyable enough if overlong. Maybe I was just watching a dodgy bootleg, but it did feel longer than the advertised two-hour runtime.
It's a period piece by an afficionado of 1970s rock music. It seemed somewhat cliched to me. The acting by all the cast was very good. I liked the sound track, and there were many comic pieces which livened things up.
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