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Almost Famous
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Mother's Day at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater was dedicated to one of the first truly great movies of the 2000's; Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical masterpiece Almost Famous.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

I'm getting closer to the high score on the Ms. Pac Man machine in the concession building with a new personal best score of 163,070.

 

While playing Ms. Pac Man, I noticed a VHS tape on the wall near the machine that had episodes of the 90's animated series Wild West Cowboys Of Moo Mesa.  I get the pun that they're going for here, but "Bang 'Em High" sounds more like the title of an adult feature than it does a cartoon.

Prior to showtime, there was a live acoustic set performed at the photo op stage outside of the concession building that featured Rich Penecale on guitar and Virgil on vocals.  They performed about six songs including this cover of Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

Almost Famous premiered in theaters on September 22nd, 2000, but I didn't see it for the first time until just a couple of years ago.  The story is set in 1973 and it follows a 15 year old prodigy named William Miller whose musical tastes were influenced by his rock and roll loving older sister Anita.  His writing earns him the opportunity to go on tour with a rock band to write a story about their struggles with success.  In the process, he befriends Penny Lane and her group of "band aides" (groupies who don't like to call themselves groupies) and grows to have a complicated relationship with Stillwater guitarist Russell Hammond.

This movie is incredible in every way, picking the audience out of their time and place and putting them in the shoes of its protagonist.  It's shot beautifully, the music is perfect, and a standout performance by Kate Hudson who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  Philip Seymour Hoffman and Fairuza Balk also deliver excellent performances that left me wanting their characters to have more screen time.

Actor Zack Ward appears in a brief cameo towards the end of the film as "The Legendary Red Dog", a roadie for The Allman Brothers Band.  He's best remembered for his role as the bully, Scut Farkus, in the 1983 holiday classic A Christmas Story.  He's also the actor who was kind enough to give me the greatest photo op that I've had at the Mahoning.

Uncle!  Unnnnncleeeee!!!

I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to see this on the big screen.  Just prior to the start of the film, Rob mentioned that there is an extended cut of this film on Bluray which has forty minutes of additional footage.  I'm going to have to hunt that down to watch next.