Almost Famous Review

Nostalgia, in art, is often a tricky subject to tackle. Attempts to immortalize the past can often fall flat. One man’s romantic depiction is another man’s sentimental swill. Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous” occupies an area in between, though it leans towards the latter description. Filled to the brim with hollow acting, rampant predictability, and a nauseating “feel good” attitude, “Almost Famous” simply tries too hard.

Largely autobiographical, “Almost Famous” tracks main character William Miller’s (Patrick Fugit) introduction into the wild world of 1970’s rock n’ roll criticism. Through meeting a series of larger-than-life personalities on tour with rock band Stillwater, William is introduced to the ethical pitfalls of journalism and criticism.  While faced with these professional questions, he falls in love, makes friends, and everything generally comes up roses for everybody.

The film’s nauseatingly predictable story is the least of its problems. The empty, vapid portrayals of the clichéd characters force the whole nostalgic experience to fall flat. Fugit’s performance lacks any of the verve or life that the character calls for. Even worse is Kate Hudson’s portrayal of “band-aide” Penny Lane. The character functions as the prototypical “free-spirited female that changes the main character’s life,” and Hudson’s unbearably cheesy performance gives audiences little reason to care about her character.

Crowe paints the past romantically. There’s a sweeping energy and genuine love for the time period that clearly comes across. The attention to detail and love for the subject matter finds Crowe’s intentions in the right place (the production design is phenomenal) – the final product just falls short. The emotions dealt with are cookie-cutter and forced, and the story resolves itself all-too-easily.  

Little attention is given to the most interesting theme dealt with: the journalistic ethics of reviewing the artistic output of close friends. Too much time is spent caught up in Cameron’s romantic view of the lifeless, oftentimes unbearable characters, and not enough to the intellectual struggles of a journalist in crisis. Crowe lingers too long on the clichéd characters and emotions, and not enough on the real conflict. Perhaps it’s simply the result of unlikeable characters or hollow acting, but the dramatic stakes of the film feel low throughout. There isn’t much at stake here for any character, and keying into their emotional problems is difficult without any identification.

Here, nostalgia has done Crowe a disservice. His need to romanticize the past results in a predictable, flat, typical Hollywood film. Everything about “Almost Famous” screams “conventional,” something I’m sure the film was trying to vehemently avoid.