Almost Good

I suppose between Say Anything and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, I've been on a little bit of a Cameron Crowe kick lately. This week, I kept the trend rolling by checking out Almost Famous, his film about a high school student in the 70s who becomes a journalist for Rolling Stone magazine as he follows a fictitious Led Zeppelin-esque band, Stillwater.

It's a semi-autobiographical movie; hell, let's say "mostly" autobiographical movie, as that's exactly what Crowe's first writing job was (and he continues to contribute the occasional article to the magazine today). Because of this, it's also at times a rather self-indulgent movie. The movie doesn't ultimately have much to say, it's really just a presentation of "here's how it was." It's not documentary, but it does feel distant and removed like many documentaries; it doesn't offer any perspective on events, or suggest how the audience should feel about any of it.

The movie does boast a good cast, though. Patrick Fugit plays the young kid, with Frances McDormand as his mother and Zooey Deschanel as his sister. Among the members of the band Stillwater are Billy Crudup and Jason Lee. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Paquin, and Jimmy Fallon show up in minor roles. And then, of course, there's the literal poster girl of the movie, supreme band fan Kate Hudson, in a part for which she received an Oscar nomination.

The performances are pretty good. They do help you engage in the movie. Certainly, the characters are interesting to watch. But for the most part, they really aren't given any material more demanding or profound than "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" to portray, so I found myself merely entertained, not moved.

There are moments worth smiling at, and the movie never really drags. Still, I think it all could have benefited from a little more fiction and a little less reality. The wild behavior just doesn't seem that wild by today's standards, and does not in and of itself add up to a story worth telling.

Perhaps someone who was actually around at the time might better appreciate the movie as a love letter to 70s rock. But I think that even then, a better investment of time and money would be for this movie's soundtrack album, which works on a level I think many more of us can appreciate. The movie itself, I grade a C+.