Almost Famous by Cameron Crowe. I can’t say I really liked it. It was too short and got to the “happy” end too fast after a long build-up that was good but in the end turned out to promise more than the story could deliver.
The movie seems to be based on the director’s own experiences as a young rock journalist in the 1970’s. I have no idea if that is the case or not ,and it doesn’t add anything to the viewing of the movie either way.
The basic conflict of the story is how to avoid being seduced by the artists and bands you are supposed to cover as a journalist while traveling with them and getting to know them. There is also a sort of love story and some family issues added to spice the movie up so that the film is not all about riding a tour bus and hanging out in hotel rooms. There is not a lot of music in the movie, and even less writing and these are some of the problems, but the major problem is that the movie doesn’t have a point.
I can’t understand how it became a hit and got good reviews. Ok, the acting is good and the set decorators have made a great effort to make the 1970’s look alive and real but that’s all. Maybe one needs to be more of a fan of rock music and/or of rock journalism to really care about this film.
Anyway I like a lot of rock music, I like to read good writing about rock music too, and my brother has told me some stories from his tours ar0und Sweden in the 1970’s but I still don’t think Almost Famous is more than almost great.
SwedishMoon 