Music is the most accessible of art forms, steeped in variety with flavors for all tastes, music makes for great subject matter and Almost Famous is a fitting ode to 70's Rock ‘n Roll.
The movie is a coming of age story unlike any other, based largely on fact, on Director Cameron Crowe’s personal experience as a 15 year old journalist for Rolling Stone magazine, the film follows young William Miller, a fifteen year old aspiring writer and music fan who manages to con himself into a reporting gig which allows him to travel across America with the fictional band Stillwater, documenting their surfing of the Rock ‘n Roll wave.
It’s a chronicle set against the end of an era, of the days when Rock Rolled, an era that was the final heartbeat of a time that was, of the fallibility of our heroes, of their humanity when they fail to be Gods. It’s rich in reference with one of the largest soundtrack budgets up to that point, it is a trip down the road of great music and an almost voyeuristic glimpse behind the velvet rope at a side of the Rock ‘n Roll scene which ordinary folks were not always privy to, let alone a sheltered fifteen year old.
Let's just take a moment please for the genius of Cameron Crowe, who would win an Oscar for the screenplay of this movie, and who just happens to be the brain behind quite a number of some of my favourite movies, including Jerry Maguire, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Vanilla Sky and Elizabethtown. Cameron Crowe has a unique film language, probably born from his unique version of growing up on which much of this movie is based, whose mother recognised something great within her son and literally forced him into the person he would become. William Miller as a representation of Cameron Crowe, as an embodiment, version and treatment of himself entertains us as he learns some larger lessons about character, friendship and fame that can only become the fodder of many a tale to an artist's mind.
Almost Famous is a fitting title which would also be an integral theme for one of its stars. One of those rare creatures in Hollywood that forever enthralls and fascinates movie and celebrity fans, is when the next generation born of stardom and to stardom, embrace stardom and become stardom. These “blessed souls” are afforded every opportunity, it's there for their taking should they choose, always able to step up and participate in their birth right. I’m waxing lyrical of course about a very real creature, about Angelina Jolie and Jon Voigt, of Drew Barrymore and her esteemed lineage of acting greats, of Carrie Fischer and Debbie Reynolds, and as so happens with this movie, Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn. It must be quite something of a burden to carry, to be able to harness and take advantage of that birth right, and to do it on your own terms understated like, forever living in comparison and attached to the association. You could of course go the complete opposite direction and bathe in the entitlement available, a-la-Will-Smith-troop, but if there was ever anyone who has been at the top of her game for decades yet somehow managed to maintain a sense of being grounded and genuine (and therefore a great example to her kids) it would have to be Goldie Hawn - and those genes of course, let’s not forget those genes. Kate Hudson literally burst onto the movie scene with her performance as Penny Lane, the larger than life retired “band-aid”/groupie, a role that she was born to play (in the same year her mother would take on the role of a former groupie in The Banger Sisters), somehow so much like yet very unlike her famous mother, a hint of familiarity obvious yet a personality all her own embodying the role, and so it was that she earned an Oscar Nomination and became a Hollywood staple in her own right.
But Kate Hudson is in esteemed company in Almost Famous, nominated alongside her film co-star (although their characters never actually meet on screen) Frances McDormand, former Best Actress Oscar Winner for Fargo, in one of her best roles to date as the painful mother of every kids nightmares, an English Professor whose learnedness is her curse upon her children (but ironically, also the vehicle enabling their expansion).It’s a fantastic character, wrought with parent worry yet armed with faith and determination to let her kids be their own people despite her over-baring urges. She offers some of the funniest moments of the movie.
This is a great movie, it is very accessible, the themes universal (as we all have to grow up, don't we) , although I do state this alongside the fact that my viewing partner who is of another generation did not fully appreciate the journey. There you have it, taste is totally subjective, there I go saying it's very accessible one moment while the person next to me declares it too long winded (in my defense, it is getting in the way of her braining out to the live broadcast of the Oscar Pistorius Trial).
I love this movies, I love this movie now, I loved this movie then, It is one of my personal fave's
And so it is that I move along on my little project, this being the 55th Oscar Nominated movie watched since I started this blog, writing on the fly while watching the movies, it is also the 2nd movie watched from the 73rd Academy Awards. Writing is not the easiest of pass times I must admit, especially seeing as i have set myself quite the lofty and time consuming task of watching these movies and then writing about them (and this in the knowledge that there are 500+ movies on the menu to get through), that said, this is just a way to document this journey for myself, share an opinion or two (acknowledging that sometimes I have more to say than at other times), and maybe pass a recommendation...
nuff said...
No comments:
Post a Comment