Written and Directed by Cameron Crowe, Stars: Russell Hammond: Billy Crudup, William Miller: Patrick Fugit, Penny Lane: Kate Hudson, William's Mother: Frances McDormand, Jeff Bebe: Jason Lee, Anita Miller: Zooey Deschanel, Dick: Noah Taylor. Released by DreamWorks SKG. 2000.

What is it about music? Everyone has their own connection with it. It makes us happy, it makes us angry, it makes us cry. It reminds us of all kinds of things from our lives, and serves as one of the most important factors in just about everybody's life. Many movies have tried to capture it, from The Doors (Oliver Stone, 1988) to The Commitments (Alan Parker, 1988). Now, it's Cameron Crowe's turn.

A semi-autobiographical account, Almost Famous centres on Crowe's teenage years as a young music writer. William Miller is a predominately accelerated youngster who is introduced at an early age to rock and roll music by his sister, against the better wishes of his mother who believes rock and rock is the devil's music and more. As he grows older, he starts writing for his school magazine about music and ends up meeting famous critic Lester Bangs, who gives him his first assignment: write a thousand words on Black Sabbath. But instead, he ends up writing about fictional band Stillwater, after being allowed backstage and becoming friends with them. In the middle of all this, he meets Penny Lane, a sixteen year old 'band aid (a supposedly less exploited type of groupies)', who begins to introduce William to the world of backstage passes.

Rolling Stone magazine, having read his work, tell him they will pay him to go on tour with Stillwater, and, despite the warnings and hesitations from Lester Bangs, telling him that they will all want him to mould the interview into what they want to hear, thus William is interwoven into the life of the band, the main members of which are the lead singer, Jeff and the charismatic guitarist, Russell. Before long, William is exposed to Jeff, Russell and the band bickering amongst themselves, while they stare into the harsh face of stardom. Behind the band however, is the love triangle between William, Russell and Penny Lane. Penny is in love with Russell, Russell likes having Penny around but has a girlfriend, and William, before long, falls in love with Penny. However, Penny cannot see that her relationship with Russell is doomed, while Russell avoids being interviewed by William at every term, revealing to the young writer the very selfishness and thoughtlessness Lester Bangs told him about.

First and foremost, Almost Famous is an incredible movie. While I'm sure for many, as Cameron Crowe must have felt while writing it, the nostalgia factor will be an incredible pull for them, however I myself missed that era, but have since began going back and listening to bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath etc. Despite that, Crowe pulls off an immensely emotional, romantic and warm picture, superbly using the music of the time in a similar way to American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973), using a whole catalogue of songs to help convey emotion and meaning. The best way to describe this is in a scene where Russell, having had an argument with the band and gone off with William to a party, is brought back on to a silent bus, with not one person talking to each other, the only sound coming from the radio, the song playing being Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer'. Before long, one by one, the band slowly start singing along, using the music as a common ground to come together, and by the end of the song, everything is all right, showing that, in the end, for Stillwater the music is everything.

The main strength of the movie, apart from the soundtrack, are the actors, particularly Billy Crudup as Russell, Patrick Fugit as the young William and Frances McDormand as William's frustrated mother. This was the first time I had seen Crudup in a movie, and he was astonishing, excellently taking on every aspect of the angst-ridden guitarist in every way. The role is similar in ways to what you might expect, and does use a lot of clichés, but then again, that is everything that was about that era. Now, we look at what people wore and acted like, particularly singer Jeff, excellently played by Jason Lee, who brings the same oppositional fire that he showed in Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, 1997), when he says 'Rock and roll can save the world'. It sounds clichéd, in fact I'm sure right now you're cringing at it, but in context of the time, and through Lee's performance, we take notice of it, and we can tell that he believes it, again pointing to the more carefree attitude of the time.

Fugit is brilliant as William, bringing to the role a sense of knowledge and young wisdom, as well as perfectly capturing the innocence essential to the core of the character. McDormand, as his constantly worrying mother, is also superb, capturing our attention at every turn, even for the relatively short amount of time she is on screen, but if Judi Dench can win an oscar for a ten minute performance, Frances definitely deserves one here. The rest of the cast are excellent, notably Kate Hudson and Noah Taylor, and all in all, Almost Famous is a fabulous movie, Crowe leaving the schmaltz of the vastly overrated Jerry Maguire (1996), to return to the funnier, warmer air of Say Anything (1988). Definitely my favourite movie of the year so far, I'd definitely recommend this to everyone.

Ratings: Crowe 9, Crudup 8, Fugit 8, Hudson 6, McDormand 9, Lee 8, Deschanel 7, Taylor 6

Written by Charles E Brigden.