Almost Famous

Next to Will’s rehearsals for adulthood, an ordinary school leaving exam seems needlessly stressful, boring and practically useless for practical life. His wild adventure does not provoke envy, because we subconsciously detect the absence of a family relationship between reality and such elegant twists of fate, but we get joy from the fact that we can share it with him from the first guitar riff to the last kiss goodbye. Gathering material for an article in a national magazine, being surrounded by girls for whom the hippie era never ended and having the chance to listen live in person to the best rock musicians to ever shake the ground under our feet. For Crowe, the overall arrangement is more important than the strength of the dramatic arc. During the first and most amazing trip of his life, Will recognised that something started when reading To Kill a Mockingbird, but definitely nothing ended. Besides a number of hard lessons, he also receives a few gentler ones and anyone who has seen two or more works of the road-movie subgenre can’t expect any big surprises. Besides Will, one of the “initiators”, Russell (Billy Crudup), is set on taking the position of lead character. Both of them have a claim to it. The end of the film suffers from the same dualism, when only the latter (after the conclusion of the romantic storyline) is the official one. Some of the subplots come to nothing and their importance for the main plot isn’t clear (the sister). Addressing these minor issues in a great emotional film with a soundtrack that knows what high-quality music is would indicate that one is an old fuddy-duddy who didn’t understand anything. Unfortunately, words do not suffice to prove such understanding, or to convey the absolutely good feeling that I got from the film. 85% (15/10/2011)

I actually watched the movie just because it starred Billy Crudup, who was great in The Morning Show, and I wasn't disappointed in the end. A special mention goes to the soundtrack - finally, after a long time, I didn't feel as if a big fat slimy creature had tried to fuck me in the ear while sleeping. (29/11/2020)

An unusual film experience, whose greatest advantage are gripping concert scenes that take the viewer to the very edge of ecstasy, and I'm not even a big fan of rock music. Cameron Crowe's concept of the story and rock as art and cult is impressive, despite the uneven pace. The whole film carries a haze of nostalgic atmosphere from the 1970s, which speaks to me even though I wasn't born at that time. And that was, in my opinion, Crowe's main intention, to appeal to a wide range of audiences and show what that era was like, and he succeeded to the dot. In his rendition, it is truly outstanding. (21/01/2006)

Dear film, the profaned term "like real life" fits you like few others. Poor William accidentally gets into the backstage of a rock concert in the role of a semi-amateur journalist and from there, it's just a step to his involvement in the big tour of his favorite band. And on top of that, it seems like he has fallen in love with a fellow traveling fan, whom he will never have. If there was something captivating about this film for me, it was precisely William's storyline with Penny Lane, which emotionally practically broke me apart, and during most of their dialogues, I honestly had an authentic feeling in my stomach that would be enough for me to never forget Almost Famous for the rest of my life. Here, Crowe hit the bulls-eye and it's even more of a pity that their story, in a way, remains untold, and the film focuses more on the bromance of the main character with Russell in the remaining runtime. (20/06/2006)

I'm glad I saw this and can't say I didn't like it. At the very least, though, it's fair to mention that the longer version (The Bootleg Cut) is unnecessarily drawn out in places (especially in the exposition and at the end). Plus, the film just isn't good enough to keep you unreservedly entertained for the entire two and a half hours. It certainly works as an appealing type of generational statement, and hardcore fans of classic rock will definitely enjoy it, but despite the feel-good vibe of the whole thing I couldn't help feeling that the filmmaking craft here was only slightly above average at best. Even in terms of emotion, it wasn't as strong as I thought it would be. Definitely an enjoyable feel-good film, but that's about it. [65%] (13/01/2022)