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Music Film Review |
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Almost Famous |
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By Moose |
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Mega successful writer/director Cameron Crowe
gives us a glimpse of what his early career as a fledgling rock
journalist was like in this film, which for me ranks as one of my
all time favourites. It's set in the
70's, and nerdy William Miller (Patrick Fugit playing a character
loosely based on Crowe) manages to convince Rolling Stone magazine
that his local fanzine and school newspaper contributions are enough
for an assignment, and off he trots to check out Stillwater - a
fictional up and coming blues-rock type band. Rolling Stone have no
idea that he's just 15 years old at this stage. Anyway, after
hooking up with the bands semi-loyal troupe of groupies (or
"band-aids" as they quaintly call themselves) the one night live
review and brief interview assignment turns into a trek across
America with the band, and a promotion of the feature to cover story
status!! |
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Along the way Stillwater manage to survive a number of near fatal
accidents and near career ending artistic differences, with various
members of the band also exposing various personal problems too.
When the t-shirts arrive things really get nasty!!! Obviously
there's the whole "sex and drugs and rock and roll" thing going on
as well, it is the 70's after all, and all of this plays out in
front of the tape machine and note pad wielding Miller.
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The music is 100% period authentic, with original
songs from Peter Frampton and Crowe's wife Anne Wilson (from 80's
AOR-tastic Heart). The track Fever Dog is just so damn cool with
it's Zep-like vibe, and there are a couple of other killer tracks
that would have been the best songs on any release from Free or Bad
Company back in the day. There's plenty of other cool music used
throughout the film too, including a complete scene built around
Elton John's Tiny Dancer towards the end.
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As the main men in Stillwater, Billy Crudup and
Jason Lee manage to make it look like they can really play guitar
and sing, while the whole tour has just enough chaotic madness going
on to paint a picture of what it must have been like to be Jimmy
Page or Duane Allman back in those days - the scenes at the Hyatt
House Hotel in LA, still known as the Riot House to this day, are
especially mad. Kate Hudson is especially sexy as the main groupie,
Penny Laine. Crowe claims that none of
the events in the film are 100% true to actual events, and has tried
to suggest that Stillwater and the stuff they get up to have been
crated from a hotch-potch of memories of various different bands.
That he went on to a subsequently successful career in both music
journalism and then films suggests he had plenty of material to draw
upon.
There's a great DVD/CD package of this film
available if you do a bit of hunting on the old www - it includes an
extended directors cut of the film with extra music/gig scenes, and
also a CD of the soundtrack. Well worth tracking down for the songs
alone……..
Moose. |
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