This isn't easy to say: Cameron Crowe's new movie, Almost Famous, is based on his own unique adolescence. Arrrrrrrrgh! you may be thinking. Here comes Crowe, another privileged male boomer, turning his teen years into a movie. How about a ticket to a sharp jab in the eye instead?
Settle down. First of all, Crowe's movies tend to be quite entertaining. He wrote Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and served as writer-director on Say Anything...(1989), Singles (1992) and Jerry Maguire (1996). Also, Crowe's adolescence truly was unique. Before his 16th birthday, he had hit the road, covering 1970s rock bands for Rolling Stone. That experience "was always the best story I had," says Crowe, 43, who started pounding out the screenplay for Almost Famous nearly 15 years ago and honed it between other projects. "It was the sweetheart that I ran back to every time."
Make a few phone calls, and you'll easily find endorsements. Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner calls Almost Famous "probably the most accurate and heartfelt rock-'n'-roll movie I've ever seen." Tom Cruise, who has already seen Crowe's movie twice, raves about "the depth he has in his characters." Full disclosure: both men are friends of the writer-director. Cruise starred in Jerry Maguire, of course, and has signed on for Crowe's next film, Vanilla Sky, a thriller co-starring Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. Wenner's thumbs up is even more suspect. Not only is he portrayed briefly in the film as a Young Turk, he's played by Eion Bailey, the best-looking actor in the cast. Still, these pronouncements will receive no argument here.
With a $60 million budget, Almost Famous vividly re-creates the '70s rock scene. And any movie with Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Simon & Garfunkel and the Chipmunks on the sound track can't go too far wrong.
Like Crowe--a big, smart, shaggy, excitable man, fond of baggy shorts and sloppy T shirts--Almost Famous is sophisticated but steadfastly innocent; less a rock anthem than a love song to rock, musicians, groupies and Crowe's own family. In the film, Crowe's 15-year-old alter ego, boy reporter William Miller (Patrick Fugit), gets his first assignment from Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres (a real person, played by Terry Chen) to profile an up-and-coming (fictional) rock band called Stillwater. Trying to get an interview with Stillwater guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), young Miller finds himself traveling with the band and falling in love with the guitarist's pet groupie, Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), all the while remaining bound to the apron strings of his mother (Frances McDormand), a liberal crusader who sees rock 'n' roll as nothing more than a drug-laden detour on her son's path to law school.