Last fall, Dreamworks released a film with “buzz” barely detected by the entertainment industry’s radar.  Upon its release, American Beauty was extremely well-received by critics and, while some people couldn’t quite grasp the idea of its widespread acclaim, it went on to cut a wide path through Hollywood as it took home four major Academy Awards.

Almost exactly one year later, the studio unleashes Almost Famous, and, while it remains to be seen if the public snuggles up to the film, it’s already pulling in some of the best reviews of the year.  Is Famous, which boasts no major stars and tells a highly personal story, going to be an Oscar contender?  I’m not sure, but it does have a scene with a blonde girl and a rose, so you’ve got to like its chances.

Famous opens in 1969 San Diego, where single schoolteacher Elaine Miller (Frances McDormand, Wonder Boys) is struggling to raise her two children in a time when drugs and free love were guaranteed to anyone that wanted them.  Her oldest, daughter Anita (Zooey Deschanel, Mumford) is a lost cause, fleeing the home and her mother’s overprotection for San Francisco’s happening scene.  This, of course, focuses all of Elaine’s well-meaning energy, as well as her restrictions on everything from sugar to rock music, on her youngest son, William (Michael Angarano).

A precocious eleven-year-old, William discovers his sister’s abandoned record collection, and falls in love with the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Who and Bob Dylan.  Flash to 1973, where William (newcomer Patrick Fugit) abandons notions of fitting in with his older classmates (he skipped a grade and started school a year early) and instead spends his time writing for his school newspaper, as well as an underground rock rag.  Through his perseverance and his skills as a writer, Creem magazine editor Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Talented Mr. Ripley) tells William to give him a 1000 word article on the Black Sabbath show coming to San Diego.

William’s inexperience and youthful looks keep him from getting to Sabbath, but he does manage to strike up a friendship with a group of fans that follow Sabbath’s opening band, Stillwater.  Adamant in her denial that her friends aren’t groupies, Penny Lane (Kate Hudson, Gossip) becomes William’s link to a subject he can both obtain access to and write about.  His piece for Creem opens the door for a bigger and more lucrative offer from Rolling Stone magazine, but also entails missing school to follow the band on a portion of their “Almost Famous” bus tour of the country.

Trying to heed the words of both his mother (“don’t do drugs”) and his Creem mentor (“don’t make friends with rock stars”), the wide-eyed William sets out to write an unbiased article about the band.  His attempted detachment is constantly challenged by his close relationship with Stillwater guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup, Jesus’ Son) and soon, William begins to act as an intermediary between Russell and his road girlfriend Penny.  His article, if he’s ever able to find the time to write it, could be a hypnotic tale of a band on the verge of stardom dealing with management changes, pyrotechnic problems and a quiet power struggle within the group.  But he can never get any of the band members to sit down for a proper interview.

Famous was written and directed by Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire), who, as you may know, became an editor for Rolling Stone when he was just sixteen.  The film is a semi-autobiographical tale of his years spent traveling with some of the country’s top rock acts.  Stillwater is a blend of Led Zeppelin and The Allman Brothers (among others), and the relationship between William and Russell is supposed to have been based on Crowe’s personal interviews with Jackson Browne.

The ending of the film starts to get a little tedious, but it ultimately pays off.  Crowe’s fly-on-the-wall direction gives the film a bit of a documentary feel, but without the shaky, handheld camera work that we’ve seen in biopics like Private Parts.  John Toll’s (Braveheart) glowing cinematography and Nancy Wilson’s (from Heart - she Crowe’s wife) score add to the almost hypnotic pace of the film.

The unknown Fugit is perfectly cast as the ingenuous teen, and Crudup’s rock swagger is mesmerizing (I still think he was channeling Kurt Cobain in Jesus’ Son).  It would be tough to imagine Famous with its original casting choices – Brad Pitt playing Russell and Sarah Polley tackling the role of Penny Lane.

Famous has one of the year’s best opening sequences, where William handwrites the credits on a yellow legal pad with a pencil (making one hilarious mistake).  His writing is broken up by shots of his bedroom, which is covered in rock posters.  There are also several shots of a desk drawer full of concert ticket stubs and backstage passes, which Crowe provided from his own personal collection.  The film’s musical consultants were Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis and Peter Frampton, the latter of whom provides a cameo as well.

2:05 – for adult language, mild sexual content and drug use