Filmsane

My god Almost Famous is 21 this year. It’s basically old enough to get a drink in a bar. But looking back at the year 2000 when Cameron Crowe’s movie premiered, I was hoping to be Almost Famous.

Let me explain. Back in the early 2000s, I was a teenager prepping for high school. I was a pimple-faced skinny chick that was basically clueless about everything you can possibly imagine. Well, everything except one teensy tiny thing. I wanted to be a journalist. I knew I wanted to be writer back in first grade, but I digress. Four years later I got into college and I was on my way to becoming a journalist, but circa 2000 I had an idealistic, pink color tainted glasses type of view about the world around me. Politics, the music industry, and movies in particular. And it was in no small part thanks to Almost Famous. Let’s be honest. More than 2 decades later the movie is still an inspiration for generations of wanna-be writers and music journalists. The unreachable dream for so many of us.

Heck, I was one of them and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I even had my own Lester Bangs (OK my version of Lester Bangs). I had my Yoda. The sensei that was going to guide me, and make me a better writer. And he did (he’s sadly no longer with us). However, the time in which I entered the world of JOURNALISM was not the time of Bowie, Stillwater and Led Zeppelin. I mean I got to write about Patty Smith and Carlos Santana. Hey, I even mingled with 50Cent backstage, if I do say so myself. And that’s swell… That’s all dandy. But the era of journalism that I aspired to practice. The journalism that was idealistically introduced to me through Almost Famous was no more. It wasn’t a reality. It was a wet dream and it still is 20 plus years later. And it kinda broke me for life.

I always mention Almost Famous as the movie that makes me feel good. Not the movie that is not good all by itself (don’t get me wrong it is). No. There’s a cool, effortless and mellow vibe throughout the movie without an ounce of cynicism. There’s a level of humanity in all of the characters that I feel is lacking now. Perhaps one of the few other movies that make me feel that way is Wonder Boys. Similarly, the Curtis Hanson movie was released in the same year as Almost Famous and it also deals with broken writers. But these two movies (especially Almost Famous) have the same effect as I suppose opioids have on other people.  I’ve never been on opioids so I can’t articulate this well. But you get it right?

I can’t really explain what it is that draws me to Almost Famous. What is it that still makes me yearn for a career in Rolling Stones magazine? It’s not the maternal disapproval of the profession itself. My mom was very supportive of me becoming a writer. She even didn’t oppose my long absences on the road, and long hours of me writing after I got back from a concert. She’s still the best, unlike William’s mom (perfectly portrayed by the wonderfully talented Frances McDormand).

And I suppose now, 20 years later Almost Famous represents everything that I didn’t achieve with my career. I never got to the big, career-defining interview. I never won any awards, nor did I ever got my writing published in RS. A girl can only dream, right? But I should really count my blessings. I’m not bitter either. Why would I be? This may not be 1973, but I still get to write. Hey, I got my own blog now, so I’m in charge of everything and anything that goes around here.

Not to mention I get to do and write what I love without anyone hovering over my head. It may not be Rolling Stone magazine, but it’s still great. But the fact remains that 20 + years after the premiere, Almost Famous still remains a wet dream for so many. Especially journalists. Even my dearest friend (sadly he passed away from COVID-19 this March) agreed with me on this. And he loved this movie as well. It’s still the untouchable fever dream for every aspiring journalist. Not just a music journalist. But journalist period. It’s still the dream, the fantasy and the status that each of us are trying to achieve.

But yeah. I did long for a career like the one in Almost Famous. Still do, to be honest. There’s so much you can do and write about the next Netflix project. And the ongoing pandemic doesn’t help matters much. But I can’t wait to get back to the things I love, to be honest. Goin to concerts, going to the cinema and writing about it afterward.