About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 2000)
THE KID'S ALL WRITE ALMOST FAMOUS (R) William Miller is confused, heartsick, exhausted and longing for his bed back at his mom's house in San Diego. He is living his dream. William is a 15-year-old aspiring music jour nalist (played by radiant newcomer Patrick Fugit) who suddenly finds himself on the road as a writer for Rolling Stone in director Cameron Crowe's autobiographical coming-of-age paean to rock and roll. Crowe has crafted what is approximately a true story from his own adolescence. With luck and not a little talent he emerged as a rock press wunderkind covering his heroes in the early to mid-'70s. In Almost Famous, Crowe recreates his first encounter with legendary critic Lester Bangs, played with sage wisdom and bitter resig nation by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Bangs insists that William not make friends with musicians, who will only use him to get glowing coverage. "Be honest... and unmerciful," Bangs says, and urges the kid not to play into the "silly machinery that is killing everything you and I love about rock and roll." He hesitantly offers to be a sort of mentor to the boy and gives him a practice assignment to cover an arena show that puts him in the path of (fictional) Stillwater, and its crowd of female admirers. The band senses a ticket to good copy and invites William to follow Stillwater on its tour. Rolling Stone editors, impressed by his writing samples and unaware of his age, give nim an all-expenses-paid assign ment to get on the bus. He is instantly capti vated by Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), the leader of the local groupies, who professes that her troupe isn't like the others; tb y are there for love of the music; they are there to inspire the artists... and give them blowjobs (but no "sex," unlike those other tramps—perhaps Penny would have called her group "interns" in the '90s). Crowe does a superb job of taking the audi ence on stage with Stillwater. In the same way that Martha Coolidge captured a club show with The Plimsouls in Valley Girl, Crowe nails the arena experience. His band of actors—schooled in cock-rock and playing songs written by Crowe and his wife Nancy Wilson (of Heart)—have all the vital moves down. William's journey leads him to the daiker side of rock and roll as he does indeed get entangled in the "machinery." The band bickers backstage over its new t-shirt that favors Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), Stillwater's ace guitarist, to the disgust of lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee). "I'm the lead singer, and you're the guitarist with mystique; those are the roles we agreed on!" he bellows. Hammond coolly dismisses the ego bruising apparel while the guys in the rhythm section, whc've been through this already, try to keep the peace and get on with the show. Afterwards, against William's warnings, Hammond goes to a high school party with "real people... real kitchens... real dogs" and plays tripping messiah to the wide-eyed kids. William is only able to get him out whsn their scraggly British road manager (a nearly unrecognizable Noah Taylor of Flirting and Shine) comes to retrieve his polluted charge. Hammond tries to cajole William into forgetting about aU the "other stuff" and dodges William's every attempt to jet him on the record, much like Jimmy Page did to Crowe on a similar odyssey. Half the time Hammond is shacked up in another hotel room with Penny. Unable to do his job, and shoved away from the object of nis innocent love. William sits outside the dooi and deflates in tears. William raceives a mix ture of paranoia and respect from Hammond in a subtle and eerily accu rate performance from Crudup. Hoffman as Bangs is brusque yet genuinely emotional in his late night reality checks on the phone with William. "The only true cujrency in this world is what you share with someone when you're not being cool," he says. It’s one lonely geek to another: two guys who love music and can never get the girl. As Penny. Hudson emerges as a notable new talent here, and her interplay with William is heartbreak- ingly real as she keeps him at arms-length. Almost Famous is an unsappy yet deeply felt celebratory wake for the youth of Crowe and a generation of fans, like the Manhattan charac ters of Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side" and the otherworldly artists of Todd Haynes' recent Velvet Goldmine, another paean to the 70s. But like those two, this one is also timeless. It's about the 70s, but even more the wondrous and painful relationship between artist and audience and the especially thorny position of those devo tees who choose to chronicle it in a never- ending story. Jay Nagy Almost Famous opens soon in Athens and Atlanta. r funa Casserole Chicken Pot Vie sff) 1(0 cr. CO Manicotti s? 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