There are few music-based films that really strike the right chord with me. But there is something about Cameron Crowe's magnificent (And Oscar-winning) screenplay, the performances from the four leads-Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Philip Seymour Hoffman and the two Academy Award nominated supporting characters Frances Mcdormand and Kate Hudson.
The plot is simple yet complex. A young boy named Will Miller (Patrick Fugit) who has aspirations higher then contended by his over-protective mother, to write about music for the Rolling Stone magazine. He was raised in a little suburbia that was home to him and his mother for his entire life, and when the sister left, she obviously left behind some of her music-loving necessities behind. Prior sending reviews on music to several magazines, his mentor and friend Lester Bangs (Hoffman) teaches him the art of appreciating music and teaching him what it really is and what the significance of it is. Rolling Stone magazine gets ear of the articles held in high acclaim by their magazines, and decides to get the writer to work for them. Without ever meeting the fifteen-year-old boy, they send him with an objective to a concert to write about a new band: "Stillwater", led by the guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup). After meeting a cute girl (Hudson) that seems to like him, she gets him backstage to meet with the band, and find out that him and the group of gals are invited on the road to go on tour. There he faces the drama and consequences of music and the downfalls of being young, and surrounded by people physically and mentally older then you. The boy is shy as it is, and considering the group he's with, who frequently party, smoke pot and hassle Will when he is on the phone with his concerned mother, their plans keep changing and avoiding the interview with Will at all costs. But a trip with a rowdy group actually turns into an odyssey of enlightenment and discovery for young Will. And when he is not being snubbed by the band-accept from Russell- he is losing the battle for the girl who he grows rather fond of. Will discovers many things about a lot of things, but he really discovers that the group he is with, only does their work because of their love for music, and nothing else. And Russell is a better person then he appears, as he learns as the story progresses. What I really like is the hassle that it is for the band to take Will seriously. The scene in which the band believes that their plane is going down, and they apologize to each other is touching, and when one of them admits that he is gay, and that very second the plane levels out, that is funny. Cameron Crowe scored with the screenplay for this and Jerry Maguire, but the autobiographical rock music style of the film makes it a wonder for fans of that genre, and a delight for people who would appreciate the potent and exuberant tellings of this tale of the 70's at it's wildest, and then at it's most benevolent. Funny.
The plot is simple yet complex. A young boy named Will Miller (Patrick Fugit) who has aspirations higher then contended by his over-protective mother, to write about music for the Rolling Stone magazine. He was raised in a little suburbia that was home to him and his mother for his entire life, and when the sister left, she obviously left behind some of her music-loving necessities behind. Prior sending reviews on music to several magazines, his mentor and friend Lester Bangs (Hoffman) teaches him the art of appreciating music and teaching him what it really is and what the significance of it is. Rolling Stone magazine gets ear of the articles held in high acclaim by their magazines, and decides to get the writer to work for them. Without ever meeting the fifteen-year-old boy, they send him with an objective to a concert to write about a new band: "Stillwater", led by the guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup). After meeting a cute girl (Hudson) that seems to like him, she gets him backstage to meet with the band, and find out that him and the group of gals are invited on the road to go on tour. There he faces the drama and consequences of music and the downfalls of being young, and surrounded by people physically and mentally older then you. The boy is shy as it is, and considering the group he's with, who frequently party, smoke pot and hassle Will when he is on the phone with his concerned mother, their plans keep changing and avoiding the interview with Will at all costs. But a trip with a rowdy group actually turns into an odyssey of enlightenment and discovery for young Will. And when he is not being snubbed by the band-accept from Russell- he is losing the battle for the girl who he grows rather fond of. Will discovers many things about a lot of things, but he really discovers that the group he is with, only does their work because of their love for music, and nothing else. And Russell is a better person then he appears, as he learns as the story progresses. What I really like is the hassle that it is for the band to take Will seriously. The scene in which the band believes that their plane is going down, and they apologize to each other is touching, and when one of them admits that he is gay, and that very second the plane levels out, that is funny. Cameron Crowe scored with the screenplay for this and Jerry Maguire, but the autobiographical rock music style of the film makes it a wonder for fans of that genre, and a delight for people who would appreciate the potent and exuberant tellings of this tale of the 70's at it's wildest, and then at it's most benevolent. Funny.