Rating:
3 Bowls of Popcorn (and a stomach pumping)
“They don’t even know what it is to be a fan. Y’know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts.” – Sapphire
That’s why I love Almost Famous; it’s cold and gritty and it hurts to watch. (I’m noticing a trend in my movie preferences…) Our Movie Marathon was Josh’s first viewing of this film and he hated it. Oh, he hated this movie so much. He hated this movie with the fire of a thousand suns. I can’t even explain how much hate. His review is simple: “This movie sucks.”
Now onto my review…
The premise of this movie is simple: A group of Band-Aides (essentially groupies, but they don’t like that term) follow artists and cling to the music, and a young (like 15-years-old young), aspiring journalist (William Miller) gets swept along with the music when he finds himself on a tour bus writing an article about a band (Stillwater) for Rolling Stone. While he’s there, he falls in love, learns what music really is, saves a life, sticks to his ideals, makes good friends, looses good friends, sees the shady underbelly of the music industry, sticks up for people, learns what he doesn’t want to become, and writes.
Almost Famous is a coming-of-age film of passion and melody all wrapped up in a cozy cocoon of freedom.
The first time I watched Almost Famous, I sat and stared at the screen for the duration of the credits and after the movie had returned to the main menu and for probably something like 20 minutes after that. I couldn’t seem to grasp what I saw. This is now my fifth viewing and I’m still not sure I can. The simplest explanation for why I keep this movie in my collection and why I watch it from time to time is because it makes me feel things. It makes me laugh and it makes me hurt (“it’s happy for deep people,” says Sally Sparrow). The story of the music makes me feel. Need a visual of what I mean? Watch this clip. Right before this, everyone was angry at everyone. This this happens. OH! And want a visual of how music can change a room? Here’s a deleted scene. Background: William’s mom (in pink) is super overprotective and doesn’t want William to listen to rock music. Watch and enjoy.
If you believe in music, watch this movie, and feel something. Josh disagrees. He believes in music, but he still thinks this movie sucks.
Do you agree with Josh or with me?
14 down, hopefully the next one is an upper
The Movie Marathon 
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