Being a journalist, a writer of truth, requires an honest look at things, an unbiased perspective that can't be diminished by the company of famous people. You could relate it to anthropologists studying the pygmies, or even to Star Trek, if you really wish. Think about it: the Enterprise's mission is to "explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations??p;quot;, but their "prime directive", their one major rule is that while studying these beings, from all these different worlds, they can't do anything to affect their culture or their future. They are barred from "civilizing" them, or attempting to teach them anything about the rest of the universe (yet somehow in every episode Kirk manages to flush this tenet down the proverbial toilet).
Yet, to really analyze a culture, to study them (as an anthropologist might do), you have to assimilate into that culture, to become part of it and understand the broad picture. That may mean you have to assume an omniscient role, watching everyone interact and live their lives while you are separate yourself, or it might mean you have to take a more participatory role, and really attempt to blend into that society. That way you can pick up their quirks, the idiosyncrasies that truly differentiate one people from another. And it's there that it becomes a problem: how far do you go? Where do you draw the line?
William Miller (Patrick Fugit) has that problem in spades. He's a gifted youth, with a love of rock and roll and a talent for writing about it. Through his ability, he makes friends with legendary rock critic Lester Bangs (god love Philip Seymour Hoffman), who really serves as the conscience of this film. Lester instructs him to be "brutally honest", and moreover never, ever, to make friends with the rock stars. In his mind they, the musicians, are corrupting rock, and with it music writing, making it into a genre of fluff pieces. To Bangs, he's fighting the good fight, by telling things the way they are, and through that honesty keeping rock alive.
William scores an assignment from Rolling Stone, as major then as it is now, to cover a mid-level band called Stillwater. Like many (if not all) bands of the 70s era, Stillwater is a melting pot of differing values, abilities, and egos, expressed through the two main players: Jeff, the lead singer, is played by Jason Lee (a veteran of several Kevin Smith films as well as Enemy of the State and Mumford); and Russell, the lead guitarist "with mystique", played by Billy Crudup (who played F__Head in Jesus's Son, and has been "the next big thing" for a good two years now). Jason has established a fine career less of playing characters as much as various permutations of himself- not that this is completely a bad thing, because he positively radiates charisma in every single scene he is in (such as in Mallrats, where he could truly be credited with rescuing the entire film). Here he becomes a character, another person entirely, and succeeds admirably in truly bringing out the angst in his role. Jeff's feelings of inadequacy are linked entirely to Russell's dominant stature amongst the fanbase and the record company. He had wanted he and Russell to be the next Plant and Page or Mick and Keith, but is finding himself, as the frontman, demasculated by Russ's popularity.
Russell is the prototypical rock star- claiming to want the "real", but escaping that reality through meaningless dalliances and acid trips. He and William automatically develop a bond, and a trust that to the two of them, is unnatural. William is "the enemy", and he knows that to really do his job, he has to report about the messiness on the road with the band, to really show them for what they are. Bangs would consider that being a true friend to them. Yet Russell, whether he's aware of it or not, manipulates Will's innocence and naivet?so that the secrets the band carries on the road won't be reported to millions, to guard the mystique every band struggles to hold onto.
This movie, though, isn't the story of William and the band. It's a loss of innocence story, a first love story, and a rebirth story. Penny Lane, played by the girl that will birth my children, Kate Hudson, is a "band-aid", not a groupie as she explains early on: someone so in love with the music, they feel they need to be around that aura, that talent base, and to them, sometimes that involves sex. Bull??y're groupies, only with a bit of spin on the term. Either way, Kate IS the film, the base upon which it's built. She's so full of life, so full of optimism, that as you see her being used and wasted, you hurt for her. As William does. He falls in love with her, or as close to it as he knows. Though having a deep, abiding affection for him, she's oblivious to this fact. No, she's in love with Russell, who is married, and she fawns over him constantly. To William, this is shattering. The two people he cares about most, and he knows that they're bad for one another, and it breaks his heart.
Through it all, though, William inserts himself into the band's inner circle- he becomes a party to their actions and is allowed to listen in on their secrets. He's their confidante, and is respected as such. The band knows they shouldn't trust him, but they do because they like him, because he's not just a journalist but a fan. It builds to several payoffs, actually, where really his loyalty to the band, to himself, and to the truth are put to the test.
I'll halt there- the movie speaks for itself, and to mention many more details would be a disservice to you. Cameron Crowe, who directed Almost Famous along with one of my most favorite movies ever, Jerry Maguire, has put together this wonderful semi-autobiographical portrait of his life and the friendships he made and lost along the way. The greatness is not in the actual plot, which really is negligible. No, the real beauty of this work is the interplay between the characters, the emotions and feelings that flow throughout this movie. As long as Crowe continues to create such intimate, personal movies with so much heart, he'll have people in awe and in line at the box office.
Thoughts? Hatred? |
