Almost Famous - Cameron Crowe

The impetus for me making my list of the best movies of the decade was Bill Simmons' similar discussion on his podcast and in a recent article. For him it came down to Almost Famous and The Dark Knight, with Almost Famous winning out mostly because it's been around longer and he had more time to consider it as one of his favorite movies. In making my list I ignored Almost Famous because frankly, when I first saw it I hated it. This movie came out in 2000 so it had been at least 8 years since I saw it and I was much younger at the time. I thought that the movie deserved reconsideration because so many people I know and respect love this movie.

Right from the beginning I could see why people so highly respect this movie. The dialog is incredibly well written, the movie is extremely well acted, and the soundtrack is amazing. Cameron Crowe put to good use his experience in writing for Rolling Stone to be able to make the rock stars come to life as real and interesting people. Billy Cruddup and Jason Lee are perfect as the feuding bandmates, and as usual Philip Symour Hoffman steals every scene he is in as the local film critic in young William's hometown. And if that's not enough, Frances McDormand knocks her role out of the park as her portrayal of William's overprotective mother. In fact my favorite scene of the movie might be when William's mother dressed down Cruddup's Russell Hammond for leading her son astray and for not living a very respectable life.

So far it seems like I loved Almost Famous almost as much as Bill Simmons does, but I have one sticking point with the movie, and it's a major one. I cannot stand the character of Penny Lane played by Kate Hudson. It's not that Hudson does a bad job, she sells the role perfectly well, I just find everything about to character to be REALLY lame. This starts with her posturing at the beginning of the film with a phony name and superiority about being not a groupie but a 'band-aid'. It only gets worse when she does things like tell William that they are going to move to Morocco and leads him on while pinning for the lead guitarist, Russell. I know we're supposed to see through her facade at least a little bit, but I find her utterly deplorable.

This might be the result of the fact that I have never appreciated or respected idolatry, especially of rock stars. I really love good music, but I have never really found most of the people behind it interesting at all (except in rare cases like David Bowie) and don't understand people who try to become groupies. Penny Lane's goal in this movie is to hang out with rockstars, pretend to be more than a mere groupie and thus looks down on the other girls, and to lead a glamorous lifestyle to which she adds nothing. She claims to love the music and this is what separates her from the other girls, and yet we never hear of her discussing music. Her conversation completely revolves around gossiping about rockstars and talking about 'the life'.

I hated her and her friends so much that anytime there was a scene involving them I would audibly groan and roll my eyes. They were just so annoying for the entire movie and I couldn't get past it. For me, they ruined any scene they were in. Maybe I will soften on this stance as I get older seeing that I believe this is the reason I hated this movie in it's entirety when I was a teenager and now I only hate 1/5 off it. I can see why people would love this movie so much, and I can even respect someone who thinks of this as their favorite movie of the decade but for now I consider Almost Famous part spectacular film and part incredible annoyance