Almost Famous

"one day, you'll be cool" Almost Famous details the events of 15 year old William Miller (based on Cameron Crows adolescence) who follows the band Stillwater, acting as a Rolling Stone magazine writer. It is set in what I believe to be the best age of music, mainly because of my dad exposing me to 1960s and 70s music from a very early age, including the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Kinks and his personal favourite Deep Purple among many others. I think this is the reason why this film has urged me to feel the need to write my first formal review, rather than an unfunny one liner, as the soundtrack chimes in with almost all the music I grew up with, with the final song "Tangerine" by Led Zeppelin taking me back to my early childhood listening and singing along with my Dad.I think the movie further resonates with me because it so closely follows this idea I have of my Dad in his early years, as he also was in a not so successful band "The Kinky Pig" (odd name I know). He obviously has not told me every detail of what went on, but i've always had this idea that he was some forgotten rock legend from the 1970's, comparing him to the likes of Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page, where this movie and specifically the character Russel Hammond (played by Billy Crudup), almost exactly depict this idea I have of my father and has therefor become somewhat of a comfort movie for me, despite never believing a true comfort movie could exist.The addition of Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs, makes this movie a 10/10, as not only does he play every role he's been in perfectly from, Phil Param in Magnolia, to Scotty J. in Boogie Nights, but in this film specifically, he adds a level of comfort past what I believe any other actor could do by making you feel like even when William Miller appeared to be all alone and on the road with a group of crazy egoists, Hoffman was still there at home on the phone being "uncool" and for that reason, to me he gave this film the level of comfort that I will remember it by. If you read all of this I apologise, I am sadly (unlike William Miller) not known for my writing skills.