The movie starts off sometime in the sixties with Francis McDormand (Wonder Boys, Fargo) talking to a young William Miller (Patrick Fugit) our reluctant hero about characters from "To Kill a Mocking Bird", The sister comes home with a record of "Simon & Garfunkel" which the mother bans in the house along with Eggs, Bacon, and meat. Eventually The sister leaves home to become a stewardess and tells William: "Look under your bed. It will set you free". The Young William discovers a case of classic rock records Like "Zeppelin", "Cream" and "The Who". He then begins playing "The Who's Tommy" and gets introduced into another world. We fast-forward into 1973, where young William becomes an amateur rock critic.

He then is sent on an assignment with a not so famous band Named "Stillwater", where he is introduced into a world of rock, women, and love. Me being a humongous classic rock guru, and fanatic took this excellent movie to heart and adored it. This is one of the only original and excellent movies from 2000. This features an good cast with Kate Hudson who sparkles in this role as the Band-aide. Billy Crudup is excellent and makes his presence felt with great chemistry along with the other characters. Newcomer Patrick Fugit supplies great chemistry with Hudson. Of course as always, Jason Lee tends to steal the show in this as the bands lead singer whom often has a beef with Crudup's character. Lee gives a great performance in this and proves once again, he's leading man material.

Another one of the lighter points of the movie is McDormand's radiant and flamboyant role as the strict hippie mother. She provides a lot of heart to this movie and is actually based on Crowe's mother. The Dialogue and plot are top-notch with actual heart and no real essence of Hollywood triggering. The Directing is magical. Crowe provides great and heart-felt camera angles that give this movie life. The essence that made me love this movie so much was the spectacular soundtrack featuring Elton John, Jimi Hendrix and "The Who". I loved this. "Almost Famous" gets the balconies praise. This is extremely suggested for all audiences who grew up during the era of the seventies. Bravo Mr. Crowe.

There wasn't much to this movie that I didn't like except for the choice of the lead. I felt Patrick Fugit, though the appropriate age for the role really didn't have much a presence to add to this serene rock tale. He mostly walks around stumbling as the supporting characters steal the show and radiate it to enormous standards.

A great "love letter to rock" as Cameron Crowe give us this excellent love story accompanied by a soundtrack. I'd give this five stars if I could, I simply adore this movie. Rock on.

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