An aspiring teenage rock journalist gets his big break when he follows an up-and-coming band on its tour. (Learn more)
Starring: Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson (View All)
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Starring: Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson
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 & roll 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, All Movie Guide
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US Release Date
9/13/00
MPAA Rating
Rated R
Running Time
122 mins.
Locations
- Hyatt House, Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, CA
- Los Angeles, CA
- New York City, NY
- Rolling Stone magazine office, San Fransisco, CA
- San Diego, CA
Language
- English
Box Office Total
$32,522,352
Awards
- Nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award at the 2000 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 2000 Chicago Film Critics Association [Fest Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Actress award at the 2000 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 2000 Directors Guild of America [Festival/A Awards.
- Winner of the Best Picture award at the 2000 Chicago Film Critics Association [Fest Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award at the 2000 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti award at the 2000 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 2000 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2000 Chicago Film Critics Association [Fest Awards.
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association [Fe Awards.
- Winner of the Most Promising Actor award at the 2000 Chicago Film Critics Association [Fest Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Ensemble Acting award at the 2000 Screen Actors Guild [Festival/Award] Awards.
- Winner of the Best Original Screenplay award at the 2000 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Breakthrough Performer award at the 2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association [Fe Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti award at the 2000 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Original Screenplay award at the 2000 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award at the 2000 Screen Actors Guild [Festival/Award] Awards.
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2000 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Original Screenplay award at the 2000 Writers Guild of America [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Screenplay award at the 2000 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the AFI's Top 10 Films of the Year award at the 2000 American Film Institute [Festival/Awar Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Music award at the 2000 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Sound award at the 2000 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Original Screenplay award at the 2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association [Fe Awards.
- Winner of the Best Picture - Musical or Comedy award at the 2000 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Editing award at the 2000 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
Distributor
- DreamWorks
- DreamWorks Home Entertainment
