Almost Famous is a 2000 American comedy drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe, starring Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It tells the story of a teenage journalist, played by Fugit, writing for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1970s, touring with the fictitious rock band Stillwater, and writing his first cover story on the band. The film is semi-autobiographical, based on Crowe's experiences as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone.[2]
The film is regarded by some as a cult classic and in a 2016 international poll conducted by the BBC, Almost Famous was ranked the 79th-greatest film since 2000, while it was ranked as the 47th-best film of the 21st century in a 2025 poll by The New York Times.[4][5][6] In a Hollywood Reporter 2014 list voted on by "studio chiefs, Oscar winners and TV royalty", Almost Famous was ranked the 71st-greatest film of all time.[7] A stage musical adaptation of the film opened on Broadway in November 2022.[8]
Plot
In San Diego 1969, child prodigy William Miller struggles to fit in with his peers. His mother Elaine, a widowed college professor, further complicates his life by starting William early in school and leading him to believe he is 13 years old when he is only 11. Strong-willed Elaine's strict ban on rock music and her fear of pop culture have a lasting effect on her two children, finally driving William's 18-year-old sister Anita to move to San Francisco and become a flight attendant.
In 1973, William, now 15 and influenced by Anita's secret cache of rock albums, aspires to be a rock journalist, writing freelance articles for underground music magazines. Impressed by William's writing, rock journalist Lester Bangs gives him a $35 writing assignment to interview Black Sabbath at a concert. William is barred from backstage until the opening band Stillwater arrives and William flatters his way in. Lead guitarist Russell Hammond takes a liking to William, as does groupie Penny Lane. Penny claims she and her friends are not really groupies but "band aides", a term she coined to describe female fans who follow bands to support the music, not for sex.
On seeing William's Black Sabbath article, Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres hires him to write an article about Stillwater and sends him on the road with the band. William interviews the other band members, but guitarist Russell Hammond avoids him. Tensions mount between Hammond and lead singer Jeff Bebe as Hammond becomes the more prominent member. The band jokingly refers to journalist William as "the enemy", but he eventually integrates into their inner circle.
Professional road manager Dennis Hope is brought in to handle problems with venues and promoters. Penny has to leave before the band reaches New York, where Russell's girlfriend Leslie is joining them. Penny and three other girls are gambled away to another band in a poker game; Penny acts nonchalant but is devastated. Meanwhile, Dennis foregoes the band touring by bus and instead charters a small plane to play more gigs.
At a party in a New York restaurant, William informs the group they are being featured on the Rolling Stone cover. Penny shows up uninvited but leaves after her attempts to get Russell's attention become disruptive. William follows Penny to her hotel, where he saves her from overdosing on quaaludes. The next day, the band encounters severe weather during their flight. Fearing the plane will crash, everyone confesses long concealed secrets while the simmering conflict between Jeff and Russell erupts. William confesses his love for Penny after Jeff insults her. The plane lands safely, leaving everyone to ponder the changed atmosphere.
William arrives at the Rolling Stone office in San Francisco and shocks the staff by his young age. William has difficulty finishing the article and calls Bangs for help. He advises William to "be honest...and unmerciful." The editors are enthused by William's article, but Russell lies to the magazine's fact-checker and claims most is false. Rolling Stone kills the piece, crushing William. Anita encounters a dejected William at the airport and offers to take him anywhere; he chooses for them to return home to San Diego.
Sapphire, a "Band Aide", chastises Russell for betraying William and mistreating Penny. Russell calls Penny, wanting to meet with her, but she instead gives him William's home address. Russell arrives believing it is Penny's house but is instead met by William's mother, Elaine. Russell apologizes to William and finally gives him an interview. Russell also verified William's article's to Rolling Stone, which runs it as a cover feature. Penny fulfils her long-standing fantasy of going to Morocco while Stillwater again tours by bus.
Cameron Crowe used a composite of the bands he had known to create Stillwater, the emerging group that welcomes the young journalist into its sphere, then becomes wary of his intentions. "Stillwater" was the name of a real band signed to Macon, Georgia's Capricorn Records label, which required the film's producers to obtain permission to use the name. In an interview, real Stillwater guitarist Bobby Golden said, "They could have probably done it without permission but they probably would have had a bunch of different lawsuits. Our lawyer got in touch with them. They wanted us to do it for free and I said, 'No we're not doing it for free.' So we got a little bit of change out of it."[9] Seventies rocker Peter Frampton served as a technical consultant on the film. Crowe and his then-wife, musician Nancy Wilson of Heart, co-wrote three of the five Stillwater songs in the film, and Frampton wrote the other two, with Mike McCready of Pearl Jam playing lead guitar on all of the Stillwater songs.[10][11]
Patrick Fugit, then "a complete unknown from Salt Lake City, Utah", was cast late in the process after Crowe and casting director Gail Levin watched Fugit's self-taped audition.[12]
The character of Russell Hammond was originally set to be played by Brad Pitt. However, during rehearsal prior to filming, Crowe and Pitt mutually decided that it was "not the right fit", and Pitt dropped out of the project. The line "I am a golden god!" in the pool-jumping sequence, as well as numerous references to Russell Hammond being unusually good looking, were written for Pitt but remained in the script after Billy Crudup was cast.[13] In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Crowe confirmed that the "golden god" scene was inspired by Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant, who had uttered the sentence on a "Riot House" balcony.[14]
Crowe based the character of Penny Lane on the real-life Pennie Lane Trumbull and her group of female promoters who called themselves the "Flying Garter Girls Group".[16] Though they were not in the Flying Garter Girls group, various other women have been described as Crowe's inspiration, for instance Pamela Des Barres[17] and Bebe Buell.[18]Sarah Polley was originally cast as Penny Lane, but, when Brad Pitt dropped out, she dropped out as well and was replaced with Kate Hudson. Natalie Portman was also considered.[19]
The character of William Miller's mother (played by Frances McDormand) was based on Crowe's own mother, who even showed up on the set to keep an eye on him while he worked. Although he asked his mother not to bother McDormand, the two women ended up getting along well.[20]Meryl Streep was also considered for the role.[19]
Alice in Chains' guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell was Crowe's first choice for the role of Stillwater bass player Larry Fellows. Cantrell is friends with Crowe and had previously appeared in two films directed by him, Singles (1992) and Jerry Maguire (1996). Cantrell was busy writing the songs for his solo album Degradation Trip and had to turn the role down. Mark Kozelek was cast instead.[21]
Crowe took a copy of the film to London for a special screening with Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Plant. After the screening, Led Zeppelin granted Crowe the right to use one of their songs on the soundtrack—the first time they had ever consented to this since allowing Crowe to use "Kashmir" in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)—and also gave him rights to four of their other songs in the movie itself, although they did not grant him the rights to "Stairway to Heaven" for an intended scene (on the special "Bootleg" edition DVD, the scene is included as an extra, sans the song, where the viewer is instructed by a watermark to begin playing it).[22][23]
In his 2012 memoir My Cross to Bear, Gregg Allman writes that several aspects of the movie are based on Crowe's time spent with the Allman Brothers Band. The scene in which Russell jumps from the top of the Topeka party house into a pool was based on something Duane Allman did: "the jumping off the roof into the pool, that was Duane—from the third floor of a place called the Travelodge in San Francisco. My brother wanted to do it again, but the cat who owned the place came out shaking his fist, yelling at him. We told that story all the time, and I have no doubt that Cameron was around for it." He also confirms that he and Dickey Betts played a joke on Crowe by claiming clauses in their contract did not allow his story to be published—just before he was to deliver it to Rolling Stone.[24]
Todd Rundgren: "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference" – 3:51
Yes: "Your Move" – 3:33
The Beach Boys: "Feel Flows" – 4:43
Stillwater: "Fever Dog" – 3:09
Rod Stewart: "Every Picture Tells a Story" – 5:54
The Seeds: "Mr Farmer" – 2:51
The Allman Brothers Band: "One Way Out" – 4:58
Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Simple Man" – 5:56
Led Zeppelin: "That's the Way" – 5:36
Elton John: "Tiny Dancer" – 6:14
Nancy Wilson: "Lucky Trumble" – 2:41
David Bowie: "I'm Waiting for the Man" – 4:39
Cat Stevens: "The Wind" – 1:40
Clarence Carter: "Slip Away" – 2:31
Thunderclap Newman: "Something in the Air" – 3:53
Reception
Box office
Almost Famous had its premiere at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival.[27] It was subsequently given a limited release on September 15, 2000, in 131 theaters where it grossed $2.3 million on its first weekend. It was given a wider release on September 22, 2000, in 1,193 theaters where it grossed $6.9 million on its opening weekend. The film went on to make $31.7 million in North America and $14.8 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $47.4 million against a $60 million budget.[1][25]
Critical response
Almost Famous was acclaimed by a number of critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 91% approval rating, based on 229 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Almost Famous, with its great ensemble performances and story, is a well-crafted, warm-hearted movie that successfully draws you into its era."[28] On Metacritic it has a score of 90 out of 100, based on 38 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[30]
Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, naming it the best film of 2000, and described it as "funny and touching in so many different ways."[31] In his review for The New York Times, A.O. Scott wrote, "The movie's real pleasures are to be found not in its story but in its profusion of funny, offbeat scenes. It's the kind of picture that invites you to go back and savor your favorite moments like choice album cuts."[32]Richard Corliss of Time praised the film's screenplay for "giving each character his reasons, making everyone in the emotional debate charming and compelling, creating fictional people who breathe in a story with an organic life."[33]
In her review for the L.A. Weekly, Manohla Dargis wrote that "the film shimmers with the irresistible pleasures that define Hollywood at its best—it's polished like glass, funny, knowing and bright, and filled with characters whose lives are invariably sexier and more purposeful than our own."[34] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "Not since A Hard Day's Night has a movie caught the thrumming exuberance of going where the music takes you."[35]
In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen wrote, "Character-driven, it relies on chemistry, camaraderie, a sharp eye for detail and good casting."[36]Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Every Cameron Crowe film is, in one way or another, about romance, rock & roll, and his romance with rock & roll. This power ballad of a movie, from 2000, also happens to be Crowe's greatest (and most personal) film thanks to the golden gods of Stillwater and their biggest fan, Kate Hudson's incomparable Penny Lane."[37]
Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A−" rating and Owen Gleiberman praised Crowe for depicting the 1970s as "an era that found its purpose in having no purpose. Crowe, staying close to his memories, has gotten it, for perhaps the first time, onto the screen."[38] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan praised Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Lester Bangs: "Superbly played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, more and more the most gifted and inspired character actor working in film, what could have been the clichéd portrait of an older mentor who speaks the straight truth blossoms into a marvelous personality."[39] However, in his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris felt that "none of the non-musical components on the screen matched the excitement of the music. For whatever reason, too much of the dark side has been left out."[40]Desson Howe, in his review for The Washington Post, found it "very hard to see these long-haired kids as products of the 1970s instead of dressed up actors from the Seattle-Starbucks era. I couldn't help wondering how many of these performers had to buy a CD copy of the song and study it for the first time."[41]
Publication of Rolling Stone article
In 2021, Rolling Stone published the article “Stillwater Runs Deep!” by "William Miller," backdated to August 30, 1973.[42][43]
Almost Famous was released on DVD and VHS by DreamWorks Home Entertainment on March 13, 2001.[44] In December 2001, an extended cut of the film, also known as the "Bootleg" or "Untitled" version, was released on DVD.[45][46] The extended version has about 40 minutes of additional footage.[47]
In February 2006, Viacom (now known as Paramount Skydance) acquired the domestic rights to Almost Famous, along with the rights to all 58 other live-action films DreamWorks had released since 1997, following its $1.6 billion acquisition of the company's live-action film assets and television assets.[48][49] A remastered Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray of both versions was released by Paramount Home Entertainment on July 13, 2021.[50]
In 2018, Crowe said he was working on a stage musical adaptation of the film, in which he would pen the stage libretto and write the musical numbers with Tom Kitt.[22] It premiered in San Diego at The Old Globe in 2019 and creative work continued during the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2022, the musical announced that it will transfer to Broadway, with previews beginning September 13 and opening night scheduled for October 11, 2022. The cast of the production, directed by Jeremy Herrin, included newcomer Casey Likes (in his Broadway acting debut) as William Miller, Chris Wood as Russell Hammond, Anika Larsen as Elaine Miller, Solea Pfeiffer as Penny Lane, Drew Gehling as Jeff Bebe, Emily Schultheis as Anita Miller, Jana Djenne Jackson as Polexia Aphrodisia, Katie Ladner as Sapphire, Gerard Canonico as Dick Roswell and Rob Colletti as Lester Bangs.[8]
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