Hailed by legendary film critic Roger Ebert as best film of the year and the ninth-best overall film of the 2000s.
By Kendra Syrdal / Parade / July 6, 2026
Based on writer and director Cameron Crowe’s real-life experiences as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone, the movie Almost Famous has become a cult classic sensation since its release in 2000.
When Crowe was just 16 years old, he spent three weeks touring with The Allman Brothers Band and interviewing its members as well as the road crew. Because Crowe was younger than many of the journalists, he was more inclined to interview the hard rock bands that his older colleagues didn’t yet understand. Because of this, he landed interviews with the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, and Eric Clapton.
This is what would serve as the inspiration and backbone for Almost Famous.
Crowe used many different points of reference when he created Stillwater, the fictional band, for the movie. According to Greg Allman’s 2012 memoir, My Cross to Bear, many of the moments and aspects of the film are taken from Crowe’s time spent with the band for the 1973 Rolling Stone cover feature. The movie was shot over the course of just 92 days, around San Diego, Ca. on Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs.
The soundtrack for Almost Famous has been lauded as one of the best compilations of music made for a movie, with some even considering it the best of all time. In 2001, it took home the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
Almost Famous follows 15-year-old William Miller, a child prodigy who has dreams of becoming a rock journalist. In the 1970s, he gets a job with Rolling Stone magazine and begins touring with the band Stillwater. While on the road, William becomes close not only with the band, but with a particular “Band-Aid” (another name for a groupie) named Penny Lane. William struggles with wanting to write an honest story without selling out his friends and finding his own voice within the rockstar world.
The film starred Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and more.
Despite underperforming at the box office, Almost Famous was universally acclaimed by critics. Roger Ebert gave the film his coveted four out of four stars, saying it was “funny and touching in so many different ways.” The New York Times wrote, “The movie’s real pleasures are to be found not in its story but in its profusion of funny, offbeat scenes. It’s the kind of picture that invites you to go back and savor your favorite moments like choice album cuts.”
Go to original for links
I was channel surfing a while back and came across the opening for this movie. It looked familiar immediately. The scene shifted from a residential area to Newport Ave. and you could see The Strand – still open – in the background. Very cool.
Can’t ever top ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES and its sequel RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES.
Those have to be the 2 most famous films of recent times…..well, sort of.
Yeah, but they weren’t filmed in OB, dude. (“most famous films…”? whatcha been smokin’ Richard?)
Frank:
Breathing smog can bring on a Brain Cloud. Sorry! But, why not a new “Killer Tomatoes” flic. How about, echoing last century films like “Teenagers from Outer Space”, something for the theater box office/DVD sales counters such as “KILLER TOMATOES FROM MARS”???? After all NASA, the Euros, the Japanese, the Chinese and the Russians have all grown actual plants in space and cultivated plants in Mars and Moon-simulated soils!!!!!
“The movie was shot over the course of just 92 days” that is an absolutely luxurious shooting schedule! That movie would be shot in under 40 days if it was made today!