Almost Famous (DVD)

All of Cameron Crowe's movies are incredibly warm and fuzzy, and all of the conflicts and tragedies within them are resolved without the usual pain and suffering you get in dramas. In 'Singles' even a miscarriage is ultimately swept away in the final romantic conclusion. The other consistent element in all Crowe's movies is a use of pop music. 'Jerry Maguire' was full of chirpy romantic pop, John Cusack resolved his problems with Ione Skye by playing Peter Gabriel outside her house in 'Say Anything', and 'Singles' was set in the Seattle grunge scene. This is no surprise, as Crowe started as a teenage rock journalist for ...

...and the sex, and the drugs, and the rock and roll! Back in the early seventies when director Cameron Crowe was just a teenager, he followed a rock band around on tour and then wrote an article about them for Rolling Stone magazine. Years later, he decided to make a semi-autobiographical movie about his experiences, with the outcome being 'Almost Famous'. William Miller is a fifteen-year-old boy who is two years ahead of his school peers and heavily into rock and roll music. Often writing for the school newspaper, his work is noticed by famous rock critic Lester Bangs, who encourages William to interview Black Sabbath for Creem magazine. ...

Lester Bangs: You CANNOT make friends with the rock stars. That's what's important. If you're a rock journalist -- first, you will never get paid much. But you will get free records from the record company. And they'll buy you drinks, you'll meet girls, they'll try to fly you places for free, offer you drugs... I know. It sounds great. But they are not your friends. These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of the rock stars, and they will ruin rock and roll and strangle everything we love about it. This is the advice given to 15 year old rock journalist William Miller as he joins up-coming rock group ...