Defining Favourites: Almost Famous (2000)

Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical portrait of his teenage journalist days goes beyond being a tribute to the rock music that defined his own generation.

Photo: DreamWorks Pictures

Welcome to my Defining Favourites, a section dedicated to essays about films that I feel confident in calling favourites in some way or another - akin to Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” reviews. These essays are for paid subscribers, so if you would like to read more beyond the free preview, please consider subscribing.

Directed by Cameron Crowe
Screenplay by Cameron Crowe
Produced by Cameron Crowe, Ian Bryce
Starring Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Anna Paquin, Fairuza Balk, Noah Taylor, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Zooey Deschanel
Premiere Date: September 8, 2000
Running Time: 122 minutes

Every generation has its own “once-in-a-lifetime” pop cultural touchstone, or sometimes it may even be several. For Cameron Crowe, there was a whole lot more in store for him as a teenage journalist who wrote for Rolling Stone magazine. So it only fits that this semi-autobiographical take on his own escapades is approached as a coming-of-age movie first and foremost. That alone isn’t just what makes Almost Famous a more endearing movie all throughout, but it’s a movie that really gives you a sense of what it feels like to contribute to its budding presence in the world around you. And much as Crowe knows that this entire escapade would be highly specific to the 1970’s rock-and-roll scene, you’ll only come out of Almost Famous trying to remember that moment you’ve been a part of in some form.

In fact, most of that joy from watching Almost Famous comes forth from trying to articulate your love of something massive. For the very young William Miller, it was rock-and-roll music. But Cameron Crowe also knows that when we find something we love deeply at this age, we end up latching onto it for a very long time to the point that it might just be what carries us into our own adult lives. William Miller doesn’t just feel like a stand-in for writer-director Cameron Crowe as much as he represents what it feels like to grow up feeling like you’re there despite circumstances working against you. But that perseverence and unwillingness to be deterred from what he loves most is crucial to the success of Almost Famous, owing to how Crowe knows it’s about how this love makes one grow up faster than they can handle.