Our next summer vacation movie is Almost Famous, one of my favorite movies and undoubtedly Cameron Crowe's best. In this one, Patrick Fugit plays 15-year-old William, a stand-in for Crowe himself, who was hired by Rolling Stone magazine in 1973 to go on tour with Led Zeppelin for the summer (standing in for them in the film is the fictional Stillwater) so he could write the cover story on the band. William's experiences of falling for the group and all the ways their fame, fortune and excess turns everyone around them into groupies is honest, funny, heartbreaking and feel-good all at the same time. At his peak, Crowe was always a writer who could make you cry, feel and laugh simultaneously, and he gets great, natural and authentic performances here from Kate Hudson (probably the only good movie she ever made), Billy Crudup (also his best role) and Frances McDormand as William's scene-stealing, neurotic mother. I've seen it a hundred times, but I could always watch it over and over for a million different reasons, not least of which is the music and recreation of the early 70's rock scene. It rings true because for Crowe it was, and it was something he could never forget.
Trailer:
