Sweet Emotion.
What I noticed more during this rewatch was the way in which Russell actually wants to break up the band. And that William's mum, Elaine, would totally be anti-vax.
Like so many of the great rock albums of the early ’70s, the extended cut is as indulgent and escapist as it is suffused by a subtle but profound melancholy, at once repulsed by the harsh comedown of the post-hippie era and terrified of this moment passing without being properly understood and appreciated.
— Jake Cole (Slant Magazine)
Many love Almost Famous because it’s a movie about falling in love with music. And, like Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused (which arrived seven years before), it upholds a kind of mystique surrounding the glory days of classic rock paired with narratives about growing up and the importance of music in our lives.
— Ellen Johnson (Paste Magazine)
Although the rest of the band is concerned with coming across as amateurish to Rolling Stone readers, Russell is affected by a slightly different vanity. ‘Just make us look cool,’ he pleads. This contains inescapable truths. He knows he can survive the break-up of the band, but would he be able to handle the publishing of the entire surreptitious life he enjoys on the road that would reveal a distinct counterpoint to his life off the road with a wife back home? He doesn’t want some superficial definition of cool as living fast with sex, drugs and rock and roll[.]
Synopsis: In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-coming band, Stillwater.