Almost Famous 2000

Ebert & Roeper: Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: It's easy to connect with a story like Crowe's because it is a story rooted in the human comedy, in truth. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Almost Famous is that rarity -- a movie that's great fun to watch and even more fun in retrospect. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: As a director [Crowe] has an extraordinary gift for drawing out rounded, complex performances even in supporting roles and for indicating the fine emotional shadings in the relationships among his characters. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: None of the non-musical components on the screen matched the excitement of the music. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The message is as stillwater clear as it is irresistibly romantic. By virtue of its transcendent graces, music pulls us above the din of our own pettiness. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: He ... shows us what lies beneath the coolness -- the raw, vibrant longing and the aching legacy of things long past. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: See it and it'll stay with you as your own memories do: funny, poignant, bittersweet and irreplaceable. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: It's a lot like being invited to a friend's house to watch home movies, but he keeps the real stuff locked up and shows old programs he taped from television instead. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: A delightful film that is touching, funny and eminently enjoyable. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The performances ... have a beautiful, unforced naturalism, and the movie is laced with memorable moments. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: This is the celluloid version of a glossy magazine feature -- easily perused, modestly entertaining, the kind of piece designed to please the publisher by not taxing (or offending) the reader. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The moral education that follows is fairly predictable ... but Crowe follows its contours with a sharp eye for detail and genuine sympathy for the pathos of some of the delusions involved. Read more

Manohla Dargis, L.A. Weekly: The film shimmers with the irresistible pleasures that define Hollywood at its best -- it's polished like glass, funny, knowing and bright, and filled with characters whose lives are invariably sexier and more purposeful than our own. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: A blissfully sweet coming-of-age movie in which everyone, young and less young, comes of age. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It offers the kind of top-notch entertainment that has been sadly lacking in multiplexes this year. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Oh, what a lovely film. I was almost hugging myself while I watched it. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Penny Lane [is] played by Hudson with an intuitive lucidity that recalls the best work of her mother, Goldie Hawn. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: A sweet but curiously unfulfilling story. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The movie's so clever and endearing, you can forget the almost. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: It's a sweet-minded, picaresque story, woolly with some of its dramatic details, but stacked with attractions... Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Panoramic yet cozy, enthusiastically glib, Almost Famous suggests a universe of interlocking sitcoms. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: What a shame things should fall short, given how many enjoyable moments can be found. Read more