Almost Famous Cast and Crew Celebrate Film’s 20th Anniversary

Sunday marked 20 years since the theatrical release of Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe‘s semi-autobiographical music dramedy that starred, among others, Outcast star Patrick Fugit, Mallrats star Jason Lee, and Watchmen and Justice League actor Billy Crudup. The movie follows a young wannabe journalist (Fugit) as he follows Stillwater, a fictional ’70s rock band, on tour as part of an assignment for Rolling Stone. The film also stars Anna Paquin (X-Men), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Hunger Games series), Rainn Wilson (The Office) and Darkseid himself — Ray Porter of Zack Snyder’s Justice League — as a roadie for the band’s “Almost Famous” tour.

The film performed fairly well at the box office but enjoyed massive success on the home video market, blowing the doors off video rental stores and quickly becoming a cult classic. Its 20th anniversary has generated a lot of buzz, but honestly the movie has a pretty vocal fan base even when there’s nothing to hang it on.

As you might expect, some of the cast and crew shared their thoughts on social media. You can check those out below.

In the movie, Zooey Deschanel played Anita, the ambitious, quasi-hippie sister to Fugit’s William. Their mother was Frances MacDormand (Fargo), and the family dynamic — an overprotective mom, absent father, and supportive but spacey sister — was a defining part of the movie’s dynamic. Hudson played a “band aid” who called herself Penny Lane, part of a group of supportive young women who were too close to the band to be considered groupies but who had no official relationship with the guys, other than being beautiful young superfans who followed them around.

You can find Almost Famous for rental or purchase on streaming video on demand platforms. As far as we can tell, the film is not streaming for free anywhere at the moment. An extended director’s cut titled Almost Famous: Bootleg is available on DVD.