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Almost Famous (2000)
Front Cover Actor Back Cover
Patrick Fugit William Miller
Billy Crudup Russell Hammond
Frances McDormand Elaine Miller
Kate Hudson Penny Lane
Jason Lee Jeff Bebe
Philip Seymour Hoffman Lester Bangs
Zooey Deschanel Anita Miller
Anna Paquin Polexia Aphrodisia
Fairuza Balk Sapphire
Noah Taylor Dick Roswell
Michael Angarano Young William Miller
John Fedevich Ed Vallencourt
Mark Kozelek Larry Fellows
Movie Details
Genre Comedy; Drama
Director Cameron Crowe
Producer Ian Bryce; Cameron Crowe
Writer Cameron Crowe
Studio Dreamworks
Language English
Audience Rating R
Running Time 2 hr 2 mins
Country USA
Color Color
IMDb Rating 7.9
Plot
Writer and director Cameron Crowe's experiences as a teenage rock journalist — he was a regular contributor to Rolling Stone while still in high school — inspired this coming-of-age story about a 15-year-old boy hitting the road with an up-and-coming rock band in the early 1970s. Elaine Miller (Frances McDormand) is a bright, loving, but strict single parent whose distrust of rock music and fears about drug use have helped to drive a wedge between herself and her two children, Anita (Zooey Deschanel) and William (Patrick Fugit). Anita rebels by dropping out of school and becoming a stewardess, but William makes something of his love of rock &sroll by writing album reviews for a local underground newspaper. William's work attracts the attention of Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), editor of renegade rock magazine Creem, who takes William under his wing and gives him his first professional writing assignment — covering a Black Sabbath concert. While William is unable to score an interview with the headliners, the opening act, Stillwater, are more than happy to chat with a reporter, even if he's still too young to drive, and William's piece on the group in Creem gains him a new admirer in Ben Fong-Torres (Terry Chen), an editor at Rolling Stone. Torres offers William an assignment for a 3,000-word cover story on Stillwater, and over the objections of his mother (whose parting words are "Don't use drugs!"), and after some stern advice from Bangs (who says under no circumstances should he become friends with a band he's covering), Williams joins Stillwater on tour, where he becomes friendly with guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) and singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee). William also becomes enamored of Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), a groupie traveling with the band who is no older than William, but is deeply involved with Russell. Lester Bangs and Ben Fong-Torres, incidentally, were real-life rock writers Crowe worked with closely during his days as a journalist. Almost Famous' original score was composed by Nancy Wilson of Heart (who is also Crowe's wife). — Mark Deming
Personal Details
Seen It Yes
Index 3
Collection Status In Collection
Links All Movie Guide
Amazon CA
IMDB
Amazon US
DVD Empire
Product Details
Format DVD
Region Region 1
Screen Ratio Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Layers Single side, Dual layer
UPC 667068781823
Chapters 24
Release Date 2/1/2005
Subtitles English
Packaging Keep Case
Audio Tracks ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Surround [CC]
ENGLISH: DTS 5.1 [CC]
Nr of Disks/Tapes 1
Extra Features
Color Closed-captioned DTS Surround Sound Widescreen