Page Two Hundred Eighty-Four.
There was only one thing on my agenda concerning sightseeing/shopping while in New York. I wanted to go to a fantastic used DVD store. Buying used DVD's is my primary hobby right now and I wanted to find some great place where I could indulge in my whims and browse for hours through racks of classic/obscure/cult/silent/foreign movies. Deb, my hostess, did some research and found the perfect spot: Academy Records & Cd's at 12 West 18 Street in Manhattan was just the place. I browsed for a long while and bought way more than I should have. I purchased a couple dozen movies, many of which I've never even heard of. They simply looked like I couldn't possibly live without them.
One of the few movies I purchased which I had heard of, let alone seen, was Almost Famous. This coming of age/comedy/drama from 2000, is one of those movies I didn't want to end. Directed by Cameron Crowe, it tells the story of 15 year old William, who gets hired by Rolling Stone magazine in 1973, to write a behind the scenes expose of one of his favorite rock bands. The movie is highly autobiographical for Crowe as that was exactly how he got his start in entertainment. Rolling Stone hired him in '73, when he was 16, to do a cover story on the Allman Brothers Band. He'd go on to write many more cover stories for them prior to writing his first mass-appeal book: Fast Times At Ridgemont High.
All the performances and plot points were believable and the level of endearment is off the scale, but with nary an ounce of sentimentality. It's the first of all the newly purchased movies which I've watched and I'm pleased with that decision.
Almost Famous. My rating: 9/10
Should my next movie be To Be Or Not To Be, 1942, with Jack Benny and Carole Lombard; Jean Renoir's Boudu Saved From Drowning, 1932, (one can TRULY see the influence of the father's painting style when viewing cinematic works by the son); or Saw, 20004? I've never seen any of these. Hmmmm..... How will I decide? How, how, how?
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