Almost Famous is the semi-biographical film written and directed by Cameron Crowe about William Miller. A 15 year old boy with a rebellious sister, an over protective mother, and deep love of music. His talent as a writer and that passion for music land him in front of Lester Bangs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). On an assignment for Cream magazine William mets the Band-Aides and their charismatic leader Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) plus the band Stillwater. He is tasked with interviewing the band and writing a story that ultimately could land on the cover of Rolling Stone.
I could spend days typing away on this movie but the thing that I love perhaps the most about it is Crowe’s concept of “cool” within the movie. Multiple characters are having conversations about being cool, being uncool, and letting their sibling that one they WILL be cool. Of course we all know that the pursuit of cool is futile. It is one selling their soul to the concept of approval by the masses at the expense of one’s authenticity. This lesson in story telling is cliche and sappy at best, cringe at worst. What sets this movie apart to me and makes it a masterpiece is that Crowe has these threads all over the script, some are pulled on harder than others but ALL the characters on the quest for cool find their way to exactly what they are looking for.
Thread Number 1 – Anita & Elaine Miller
Zooey Deschanel has had a fantastic career as an actor and a musician. I think most my age would’ve seen her for the first time in Elf but in this movie she plays Willam’s older sister Anita. In the movies early stages she clashes with her mother Elaine Miller played wonderfully by the great Francis McDormand.
Anita insists that Elaine has been too hard on her children. They can’t listen to the music they want, Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends the record in question and she’s gone as far as to have William skip grades.
“You robbed him of an adolescence”
This subplot of the estranged relationship between a mother and daughter is one of my favorite things in the entire movie. As Anita runs off with her boyfriend she delivers an incredible moment:
This is about as far as Crowe pulls on this thread but it’s natural because this is really the moment that sets up the backbone of the movie. We have her telling William that he will be cool and giving him her record collection, sparking his love of music. Meanwhile Elaine has essentially lost one of her children. It’s clear that as the movie progresses that it weighs on her because of how she navigates William touring with the band, giving him freedom she never gave Anita.
The transformation of Elaine isn’t extreme. But the trust she puts her son is rewarded by him excelling at his work, honoring her wish that he not do drugs and of course by him coming with Anita at the films conclusion despite Anita telling him they could go anywhere in the world together. When they arrive at the house it is not the mother and son that have an extended embrace but instead the mother and daughter. A parent who gripped a little too tight and a child who couldn’t see the wisdom and value in her parenting till after she spent time of her own, they reunite and more equal footing than ever before.
Thread Number 2 – William & Russell
When William meets with Lester Bangs he talks to him about maintaining objectivity as a rock writer. He tells him to be “honest and unmerciful” when writing about the bands despite the fact that they will do everything they can to be his friend and make him feel like one of them.
He tells them this a few times in the movie because the movie set in a time when cooperate greed was beginning to fester in the world of music. (At least that is what Lester believes). The music has become secondary, image is everything. A band will sell out to a journalist if said journalist can write piece that will advance their career and get them bigger gigs, bigger houses, and bigger paychecks.
William is far more aligned with the views of Lester in terms of why he is covering music in the first place. While he is a wide eyed kid on the tour he believes in the music and the music alone. Sure he’s a nobody back home so getting the approval of a band and the people around them is intoxicating. He loses his way on the tour because of it but it always seems to find his way back to the music.
As for Russell he takes a liking to William and befriends him just the way that Lester he said would. Partly because of the story that could be written and the status that could come with it but also because he has fallen out of love with the band he’s in and the music he plays. Russell is rarely honest for majority of the movie but one of the few moments where he is comes when he says that he has surpassed his bandmates as a musician and he can’t play all the things he wants to.
This just isn’t true. To me in this moment Russells ego is inflated and he is trying to handle the pressure that comes with their success. The guys are all worried about perception and how everything looks so they consistently project blame out. When they get their t shirts and Russell is the only one in focus even if it isn’t directly his fault, no accountability is taken by the band members and it leads to an ugly fight that sends Russell on a quest for something “real”.
The search goes far beyond the house party. And ultimately it leads both Russell and William on a collision course with one another at the movies conclusion. Thinking Penny Lane had given him her address he pulls up to the home of William. Russell had lied and said that the story he wrote was a fabrication, ending the partnership with Rolling Stone. I think Russell thought he’d find truth in his feelings for the woman he slept with whilst on the road. But Penny knew better and understood that for both Russell and William to find themselves after what they had experienced she couldn’t be the one to try to fix them – they had to fix each other.
And so we see Russell in William’s bedroom and he is finally able to give the proper interview he had been asking for this entire time. Two guys kicked backed talking about the music they love, free from all the outside noise and nonsense. Free to shed cool and work on real.
Thread Number 3 – Penny Lane & Morocco
It took way too long for me to get to Penny Lane. She made an instant impression on me and remains to this day one of my favorite movie characters of all time. Sure there is a “I can fix her” type quality to a woman who is touring with bands and hooking up with rock stars but clearly has a heart of gold. William falls for her almost immediately and spends most of the movie trying to navigate how he feels about her and a wanting for her to realize that she’s being used by these people.
I’ve never thought that Penny was naive to that idea. She always knew the game and yet Russell has a hold on her that nobody else ever had. We wait till the very end of the movie to get any sort of idea about what she’s really like. The front she puts up is broken down after Russell turns her away in New York now that his girlfriend has joined the tour. After an apparent suicide attempt she walks with William and tells him more about herself than any man has ever known. Her mother named her Lady and told her to marry up. It sheds a little bit of light as to why she became a Band-Aid. But I think she fell for it as much as William did after a while. The night they first met she asks him to go to Morocco with him for a year; with hearts in his eyes he agrees.
This thread of cool is simple and one that is the soul of the movie. Penny Lane looking inward and finding herself and a long time of trying to be something to these bands and rock stars with diminishing returns. I think for her the novelty of the situation slowly wore off. Maybe its just me a but when she says she cared about the music I believe her. But I also believe that when she doesn’t follow her own advice about taking things personally and she reaches for something more with Russell and is turned away the results are devastating. William attempts to push her towards an understanding of her reality before they get to New York in one of the movies most memorable scenes that includes some of the best work of Kate Hudson’s career.
All of this makes the Russell apology and the ending of the movie as discussed in Thread 2 so fantastic to me. Crowe is as sentimental as any filmmaker we’ve ever had and I think a lot of people may have been interested in seeing an ending where Penny and Russell end up being together. But her sending him to William is so much better because it gives the legendary movie character the ending that she deserves too. She takes that plane ride to Morocco and escapes the trap of tour buses, hotels, and rock stars. She can be free to shed the front of cool that was hindering her from finding who she was and that felt a just little bit sweeter than her going to the man her turned her away.
So what can we make of Cameron Crowe and the concept of cool in Almost Famous? Whether it be the world of rock music in the 70s or the age of social media today, authenticity is at a premium in the culture. This movie explores a time when the musicians individuality was preyed upon by cooperations and the musicians sold out. The result has been a fragmented cultural experience where expectations for people are high and the importance of art is discarded. To Crowe cool is the brave act of optimism and authenticity in the face of a world ready to cast judgment for literally anything.
Love something everyone hates, hate someone everyone loves. Find the things that bring joy to your life and enjoy them as much as you can and never forget that if you ever get lonely you can always go down to record store and visit your friends.
The Ambassador Almanac 