[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.4.0″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.4.0″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.4.0″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ z_index_tablet=”500″ border_color_all=”#ffffff” use_border_color=”off”]Dear Cinephiles,<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost Famous\u201d guarantees a contact high while watching – it makes you feel warm and blissed out. This coming of age story exudes a heartfelt glow of nostalgia that cuts deep. It was especially poignant to watch again while sheltering in place for it captures those emotions you feel when you\u2019re young and the whole world is in front of you \u2013 ready for the taking. The film takes you on a 1970\u2019s rock n roll equivalent of Dorothy\u2019s trip to Oz \u2013 including bigger than life characters and lessons along the way. Music plays an important role in the experience \u2013 and director Cameron Crowe curates one of the best song selections for its soundtrack. Melodies you\u2019re so familiar with add an extra layer of recognition to your viewing. While helping you understand the main character\u2019s journey, you also bring your own personal association to the songs \u2013 creating a communion and intimacy \u2013 a sense of connectivity I\u2019ve rarely felt in cinema. For example, when you hear Elton John\u2019s \u201cTiny Dancer\u201d and the characters sing along with it, your heart will skip a beat.<\/p>\n
The movie centers around 15 year old William who through sheer chutzpah gets an assignment from “Rolling Stone” to go on the road with up-and-coming rock band Stillwater in the early \u201870s. His stern yet loving mother (a never better Frances McDormand) is mistrustful and fearful of the endeavor (\u201cDon\u2019t do drugs!\u2019). Meanwhile, William is mentored by two disparate and unforgettable characters \u2013 Lester Bangs (iconic Philip Seymour Hoffman) \u2013 the editor of renegade rock magazine \u201cCreem\u201d who believes in him despite his age and advises him to \u201cBe honest and unmerciful\u201d \u2013 and Penny Lane \u2013 who is a groupie no older than William. She has a moral compass and boundless faith in the power of music and she shares it with William. She becomes the heart of this movie \u2013 and when hers is broken \u2013 yours will be, too. Kate Hudson\u2019s delectable performance is something to behold.<\/p>\n
All of this has a particular resonance because it is palpable you\u2019re watching the director\u2019s personal recollections. Crowe was a teenage rock journalist for “Rolling Stone” Magazine. The band depicted in the film \u2013 Stillwater \u2013 is a composite of five rock groups that Cameron toured with \u2013 Poco, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The guitarist Russell Hammond (played by Billy Crudup) is based on Gregg Allman. As the title \u201cAlmost Famous\u201d suggests, Stillwater is on the verge of hitting it big \u2013 and William witnesses their peccadillos, their narcissism as well as their squabbles and compromising between early artistic idealism and commercial success. One of the best moments in the film is when the members \u2013 flying on a private plane – are caught in a lightning storm, and they think they\u2019re all going to die. This acts like a truth serum \u2013 everyone revealing more than they bargained for.<\/p>\n
Despite all the harshness that William encounters in the real world \u2013 he retains a sense of optimism and wonder. It is that quality that permeates this film \u2013 and bathes it with a contagious golden glow. Remarkably, this hopeful young man will go on to give us such remarkable films as \u201cJerry Maguire\u201d and probably one of the best teenage movies \u2013 \u201cSay Anything.\u201d <\/p>\n
There are so many wonderful quotes in this screenplay (which won Crowe an 2001 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) it is hard to pick just one.<\/p>\n
Lester Bangs \u2013 \u201cThe only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you\u2019re uncool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Love,
\nRoger[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”4.4.0″][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ border_color_all=”#ffffff” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Almost Famous
\nAvailable on Hulu, Showtime and to rent on Amazon Prime, iTunes, YouTube, Vudu and Google Play.<\/p>\n
Directed by Cameron Crowe
\nWritten by Cameron Crowe
\nStarring: Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Patrick Fugit, Anna Paquin, Fairuza Balk, Noah Taylor, Philip Seymour Hoffman
\n123 minutes<\/p>\n
About Writer and Director Cameron Crowe
\nBorn in Palm Springs, CA, but raised in San Diego, Crowe became a journalist at the age of 15, writing music reviews and articles for such major publications as Creem, Playboy, and Penthouse. A year later, he became a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and was later promoted to associate editor. During this period, he interviewed many rock music legends, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton. At age the age of 22, he returned to high school to research a book on adolescent life and subsequently adapted the best-selling result into the script for Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). The film became something of a legend, not only because of its realistic, sensitive, and funny portrayal of teenage travails, but also for launching the careers of some of Hollywood’s brightest stars. <\/p>\n
In 1989, Crowe continued to mine the lucrative adolescent vein with his directorial debut Say Anything…, again earning kudos for creating believable multidimensional characters in an age when most teen comedies were relying on sex jokes and flimsy stereotypes. With his next directorial effort, he delved into the lives of a group of friends struggling to become adults in the Seattle-set Singles (1992). The film was not as well-received as Say Anything\u2026<\/p>\n
Jerry Maguire represented Crowe’s first foray into exploration of more adult concerns. One of the biggest hits of 1996, the film was remarkable for bridging the two disparate romantic chick flick and sports movie genres. Following the success of Maguire, Crowe laid low for awhile, working on his next project. That next project, initially called the “Untitled Cameron Crowe Project,” became Almost Famous (2000). The following year Crowe would make his first venture into the land of remakes with Vanilla Sky. A reworking of Spanish director Alejandro Amen\u00e1bar’s fiercely original Open Your Eyes. In 2005 he returned as writer\/director of Elizabethtown.<\/p>\n
Crowe spent a few years out of the limelight, but started to recharge himself with a pair of documentaries about rock and roll. The Union captured Elton John recording the album of the same name with Leon Russell, and Pearl Jam Twenty served up an extensive history of the grunge band to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. He returned to fiction in 2011 with We Bought a Zoo and Aloha in 2015.(fandango.com)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s All Happening
\nWhile the film, has long been considered a nostalgic look at Crowe\u2019s own experiences as a journalist at Rolling Stone in the 1970s, he has now shared the original story that inspired the film: an unpublished piece he wrote for Live! Magazine in 1996.<\/p>\n
According to TheWrap, the article was originally meant as a short account on a live event for the magazine\u2019s \u201cPerformance Past\u201d section. But when Crowe submitted 3,000 words instead of the requested 750, the magazine began discussing whether they should edit the piece down to fit its allocated spot.<\/p>\n
Steve Pond, former editor of Live! told TheWrap: \u201cCameron politely but firmly said that if the piece was going to be cut, he\u2019d rather it didn\u2019t run. And he insisted that if we didn\u2019t run it, that was fine with him. Writing about his relationship with his mother and with rock \u2018n\u2019 roll had given him an idea for a screenplay he wanted to write.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowe has shared the full article with TheWrap, which begins: \u201c\u2018There will be absolutely no rock music in our house.\u2019 With those epic words, my mother and father ushered in 1968. My mom was an English teacher, and early on she spotted the threat that rock posed to all those finely-bound books lining our cabinets. My sister and I lobbied hard, assuring them that drugs and promiscuous sex were not what our music was about. Rock was our poetry. Yes, came her reply, but \u2018it\u2019s the poetry of drugs and promiscuous sex!\u2019 Of course she was right, but few were as good at feigning outrage as my sister and me.\u201d (dazeddigital.com)<\/p>\n
I Am a Golden God!
\nThe band at the center of the film is Stillwater and, though they are a fictional band, they did have some notable musical talents involved in their creation. <\/p>\n
Crowe states, “The true inspiration of the movie is music. It’s about that feeling you have when you’ve just discovered a song, and you listen to it ten times in a row. You might eventually get sick of the song, but for that moment, you’re ageless, you’re timeless, you’re in your own private universe. That’s a feeling I think only music can give you. I wanted to do a movie that tapped you on the shoulder and said, ‘I’ve felt that way too.’ But if you’re going to declare so openly that you love music, you should show why you love it so much, so the goal was to write a love letter back to music.”<\/p>\n
Collaborating with composer Nancy Wilson and music supervisor Danny Bramson, Crowe incorporated both score and songs to evoke the period as well as the emotions of Almost Famous. Fans of 1970s music will recognize the music of some of the most influential artists of the day, including Led Zeppelin, The Who, Elton John, Black Sabbath, Joni Mitchell, The Allman Brothers, and more.<\/p>\n
In addition, Crowe and Wilson collaborated pseudonymously to write several of the original songs performed by Stillwater in the movie, including ‘Fever Dog,” and ‘Love Thing,” while Wilson’s sister, Ann, joined the songwriting team on “Chance Upon You.” Peter Frampton also contributed to Stillwater’s discography,” co-writing the songs “Hour of Need” and “You Had to Be There.”<\/p>\n
Wilson offers, “Music has the power to transport you. The songs from that era can bring you back to that time and can even make you remember what you were feeling when you first heard them. Creating an original score to complement and work around the songs in the film was a delicate balance.” (cinemareview.com)[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Cinephiles, \u201cAlmost Famous\u201d guarantees a contact high while watching – it makes you feel warm and blissed out. This coming of age story exudes a heartfelt glow of nostalgia that cuts deep. It was especially poignant to watch again while sheltering in place for it captures those emotions you feel when you\u2019re young and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1778,"featured_media":34307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[214],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}