By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * * * )
It's every teenage boy's dream: a 15-year-old kid (the editor thinks he's way older) wangles the opportunity to profile a rising rock band for Rolling Stone magazine. The kid, William Miller (Patrick Fugit), is driven to the concert by his mother,
who drops him off, saying: "Don't do drugs!"
In real life the kid was Cameron Crowe, who was a teenage Rolling Stone writer and is now now making movies with titles like Almost Famous.
He hooks up with an early 70s band named Stillwater, talks his way backstage past Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), the guitarist, and meets a girl who says her name is Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) and insists she is not a groupie.
William intends to be away — from school, big sister Anita (Zooey Deschanel) and mum Elaine (Frances McDormand), a professor and vegetarian who believes Simon and Garfunkel may be the anti-Christs — for a few days.
But he finds himself on the bus with the band and Penny Lane, taking his cues from legendary rock critic Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), then editor of Creem.
The band gets a hit, a hotshot tries to take over from the guy who's always managed them, they move up from a bus to a plane ... and William watches, the kid who wants to grow up.
Running time: 124 mins
Rental: Today
