What a wondrously wonderful film! And oh, how fun indeed! Besides the fantastic soundtrack from the rock n roll era of the 70s, writer director Cameron Crowe takes us on this semi-autobiographical adventure, where a boy poses as a man to experience life through rock n roll! This is one of the best films of all time….!! We first meet our young hero William Miller when he is just 11 years old although he thinks he is 12 — long story.
Mom is a nonconformist who is raising her children to think for themselves, so long as they abide by her rules which include celebrating Christmas on a day in September, no rock n roll music and NO DRUGS! When Anita can no longer handle living at home just after she turns 18 she packs up and leaves with her boyfriend to become a flight attendant, and does so quite ceremoniously to the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel!
Before she departs, she informs William to look under his bed where he finds an emergency style tote of rock n roll records with handy notes advising William as to the proper way to listen to each record! Cut to four years later and we meet the 15 year old William Patrick Fugit who looks like a typical s teenager with the scruffy hair and long pants. There is nothing typical about our hero, so discovers famous rock n roll critic for Creem Magazine, Lester Bangs Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
In this brilliant scene, William is given an assignment by Bangs to write 1, words on Black Sabbath after going to their concert that night. Not having a ticket, William is forced to find a clever way in to the concert via backstage; after a couple of failed attempts, he finally makes it in, and it is in that moment the real WIlliam Miller is born!!
As he enters the bowels of the arena, a look of gracious awe falls about his face as if he knows he is exactly where he needs to be at that moment in his life — we should all feel so lucky! It is here where he meets the world: An up and coming band called Stillwater, many rock clingers and many groupies excuse me, Band-Aids , including the world renown and beautifully exotic Miss Penny Lane Kate Hudson.
