Here’s the latest in our series of Crowe inspired essays called “We Have the Records, We Have the Proof”. The latest entry (by Dan Pulliam) is entitled The Penny Lane Identity Crisis. Another powerful, personal story. Check it out!
The Penny Lane Identity Crisis
(or: how I learned to become an invisible man in just six years)
by Dan Pulliam
Penny Lane is, in some ways, that same person for each of us that she was for William Miller. It took a while for this to dawn on me, but upon subsequent viewing of ‘Almost Famous’ (and, more especially, of ‘Untitled’), a few things became undeniably clear. One: Penny’s perfection is in her flaws. Two: Penny isn’t perfect…she just happens to be perfect for the one who loves her. Three: Under it all, she carries her battered heart wrapped up in a blanket while projecting an air of invincibility. And four: Through everything, there is one person who knows her best…possibly better than she knows herself.
That’s where we come in. And come on, guys, you know who you are. We’re the tortured souls. The ones who find something of worth in a Crowe film because we can actually feel what other people just watch casually with less-than-discerning eyes. We’re the best guys that everyone knows. We’re the last in a dying breed of chivalrous romantics (the ones as yet unphased by the recent influx of societal cynicism). We’re the people who sit patiently and wait for something intangible. We’re never happy until we find it, and yet we’re never quite sure what it is. If this is making any kind of sense to you, then we’re probably on the same page, and in the vein of the tortured soul syndrome, we’ve all got our Penny Lane, don’t we?
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