Almost Famous (2000) (Extended Version - Untitled: The Bootleg Cut)

Best American film in thirty years

By Yahoo! Shopping User  May 18, 2002 | 5 out of 5 found this Almost Famous (2000) review helpful

A movie with a soul. It is honest, sensitive, raw, and wonderfully entertaining drama. I didn't see this film in the theater. I rented it, then bought it. This movie transcends your typical teenage rock movie by documenting the loss of innocence - bo...th of the main character, William Miller (brilliantly under played by newcomer Patrick Fugit) and the music industry as a whole. Miller discovers the world of rock from listening to his older sister's albums and through circumstances ends up on an assignment for Creem magazine to write an article on Black Sabbath. When he tries to gain entrance backstage to do the story, he ends up meeting band aid (NOT groupie) Penny Lane (played by Kate Hudson) and his life changes. Instead of meeting Black Sabbath, he falls in with one of their opening acts, a fictitious band called Stillwater, and Miller's early career as a writer takes off. Penny Lane befriends the young Miller and is his guide into the world of rock and roll. The achievement of this film is it manages to show the drugs and sex, the emptiness, and shallowness of the music industry without making the viewer lose fascination or obsession with its stars and glamour. The people are human, talented, affected, and driven. That's where the film so gloriously succeeds. As Miller follows Stillwater on their Almost Famous Tour on assignment for Rolling Stone magazine, we see him fall in love and get used, and he just keeps coming out of the trenches to face more because in the end - every one is in it for the music and living for the moment. Some of the most magical moments in the film are between Patrick Fugit and Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit and Billy Crudup, and Patrick Fugit and Frances McDormand. I find it hard to imagine all the attention heaped on McDormand and Hudson to the exclusion of Fugit. While the ensemble cast in this film is one of the best ever assembled (Altman eat your heart out), Fugit and director Crowe are the glue that hold this movie together and make it what promises to be one of the most enduring films ever made. Not to mention Academy Award winner Anna Pacquin and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Oscar-worthy roles. And Jason Lee proved in this film that he should never go back to skateboarding. Ever.Guitarist Peter Frampton was a technical consultant on this film, and Nancy Wilson (Mrs. Cameron Crowe) formerly of heart wrote the score for Almost Famous. Cameron Crowe said as he was accepting the Academy Award for best original screenplay for Almost Famous that the film was his love letter to the music industry. I just hope he sends a few more their way. Or ours. This movie proves he doesn't have to take a back seat to Harper Lee as long as he stays honest. The more we see of Crowe in his work and the less of Cruise the better. If dipping into his own experiences yields this kind of entertainment, I hope the well never runs dry. In Almost Famous, he bared his soul and created a cinema masterpiece that captures more about the human spirit than anything put on celluloid in two decades.And a footnote on the Director's Bootleg cut. Spring for the extra $$$ and buy it. The longer "Untitled" version gives you more of Fugit and Philip Seymore Hoffman. While the extra footage does slow the pace of the film a bit, for those who don't have problems paying attention, what you get is a layer of character depth - and ambience that you didn't get in the theatrical version. Penny Lane's birthday scene, a longer speech from the unscrupulous manager, and more talks between William and Lester. Undulge yourself. Almost Famous isn't about instant gratification. This film is about savoring characters and stories set on a backdrop tapestry of rock posters, black lights, album covers, and back stages as rich as any work of art ever produced. This is American cinema with a passion and at its very best. Read more Less