Almost Famous (Archive)

those lists, those reviews. You should become a Film Spotting Family member. That's one of the benefits you get by being a member of the Film Spotting Family. You can learn about all those details over at film spottingfamily dot com. For now from June twenty eighteen, here is that Sacred Cow review of Almost Famous.

I just thought that was profound. Crow said. Even the guys who were playing glitter rock, which was so subversive, had a lack of irony and cynicism about it that today would be point. But the whole global change in rock cool being a mass concept was still around the corner, so it was still a little more personal. And all I can say is passionately naive, and I really wanted to catch that. Passionately naive is pretty much the best

way to describe most Cameron Crowe characters. I'm thinking here of fewer clients, less money, Jerry Maguire and I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. Lloyd Dobbler and say anything all this negative energy just makes me stronger. Cliff Ponsier and aspiring supertrained architects, Steve Dunn and singles and what about pretty much the entire cast of the Crow written Amy Heckerling directed Fast

times at Ridgemont High. We, of course, remember all I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine, Jeff Spacoli, And well, what am I supposed to do? Go to this strange girl in my biology class and say hello, I'd like you to take your clothes off and jump on me. Mark Ratner. So that's one way

into Almost Famous. If you can relate to Crowe's collection of well meaning, idealistic misfits, then you'll surely appreciate his almost famous stand in fifteen year old William Miller, who lands an assignment to cover the up and coming band Stillwater on tour for Rolling Stone, just as Crow himself did in the early seventies writing about the Allman Brothers,

led Zeppelin and many others. But there are other ways, in lots of them, according to film spoting listener Jim Pelini and Beth Page, New York, who rates Almost Famous as his favorite Crow movie.

and the founding staff at Rolling Stone, you know. Right in the center, you've got kind of the interpersonal conflict with a professional touring rock band that's kind of the bedrock of the story, and this ripped and then yet it still has time for a very authentic storyline about a mother trying to keep her family together despite I guess you'd call it the lore of the seventies counterculture.

And on the top of all that, you've got Crow very effectively conveying the you know, absolute reverie and bliss of live performance, you know, on stage and on hotel

rooms and as you know, on a bus. Of all those lines, you know, which are really fleshed out beautifully in the film, but to me, there's one that kind of floats above the rest, and that's the one that focuses on the young you know, William Miller learning how to I guess you know, love a woman for the first time and navigating the emotion sparked by that experience which is obviously new to him. It's my favorite part of the movie, and I really appreciate you guys doing

a review on it. It's about time. It's a great one.

is rolling. What speaks to you, the attention to criticism, the highs and lows of life on the road, the family dynamic, the love story, as romantically one sided as it may be, the passionate naivete of the movie's young protagonist, and his belief in the power of music, or something else entirely. In other words, what do you love about Almost Famous?

about the world and become more cynical ourselves. What did I love about almost famous on this revisit, Can I just say Patrick Fuget's face? Yeah, I mean, and that's something keep part. It's something that was striking initially. Who is this kid? Where did he find him? How he works so perfectly, the fact that he has that it's not really that he's blushing, but it's almost like he's been sleeping on a pillow on one side for a while and there's just still a little color there that

wasn't there before. That changes throughout the film. He always seems to be a little flushed about something, and when he looks at these rock stars, when he waits for their answer to his questions, that face. So I have a new nephew about a month old, Gideon Eno Coots parents are listeners to the show, so first time shout out to Nagan. Yeah, well ties in with the music theme here, And when I look into Gideon's face, we

just saw him over the weekend. He looks older and more wise and more knowing than Patrick.

get into some of that other stuff. I think, probably secondarily stuff that you can more chew on and think about and maybe we can discuss, is its attention to criticism, and in particular the critics relationship to the creators as opposed to their art. That's obviously at the heart of this film. But here I've been doing something somewhat in the same arena for a number more years since I first saw Almost Famous, and that's something that's becoming only

more complicated. So I'm curious to hear how that struck you as well. Yeah, you know just where things are,

especially as you do this more than me. But interview filmmakers from the show, and we know filmmakers who follow the show closely and listen on occasion to what we have to say about their movies, and that is all kind of like it's always kind of given me the willies a little bit, sure, and seeing Almost Famous dig into those complications did that more so in a way that was good and challenging and thought provoking.

fugutz performance. I appreciated it the first time I saw this movie, but that was something on rewatch, and I don't know believe it or not as much as I love this movie as much as I've said this before. I think it came up recently that I have the shot from the end of this movie with the microphone as my avatar. It has been my avatar since I

saw this film pretty much and avatar has existed. I have the shot of Philis Seymour, Hoffman and Fuget walking up that hill talking about criticism after the radio station scene where they meet, and almost famous as our header on our Facebook page and on Twitter. So I've always been enamored with this film and what this film is about, and yet I don't think I've ever watched it in its entirety since I saw it in the theater in two thousand and one. I've maybe caught scenes here and there.

So I really was kind of watching it again for the first time, and yet I felt like I knew it so well. Just so many scenes in so many lines were ingrained in my memory. And his performance is a standout element of this movie, and he was a newcomer.

I think this is his first real feature film, his first major project anyway, And that over enthusiasm when he is walking out of that first concert scene and he knows everybody's names, and he can't stop himself from trying to show that he fits it right, right, that he's part of the group. Now, he's part of this larger group, not just that he's attached to Stillwater in anyway, which at this point he isn't, but he thinks he's now

part of this collective, this backstage musical life. And he insists on saying hi and saying everyone's name, just as if he's even proving to himself, well, this is really happening. I'm part of this and I know these people. And then the way Sapphire comes up Rusa Balk and kisses him and calms him down. His facial reaction there is magic. His reaction when Philip Seymour Hoffman says to him, go be a lawyer, which we know his mom has been

instructing him to do earlier in the film. That look on his face not just of disillusionment, but as if Daggers Yeah thrush rushed through his heart in that moment it's great. So that look of despair, he just captures it perfectly.

discuss those problems. There are ways in which I think Cameron Crow sabotages his own material, unfortunately, but there's so much I do adore, and I think there are some obvious things we can point to you touched on some of this. It combines my primary interests movies. It's a movie after all music, which I've noted many times. But I've been playing in bands since I was twelve years old and played instruments, so music's always been near and dear to me. And of course criticism what we do

or try to do here on the show. And it's a movie that is about the consideration of art and the power it has and the place that it has. I've already alluded to this. I'm a card carrying member of the uncool. I do feel like even when I'm in these circles, and sometimes you can convince yourself that when you hang around certain people, certain filmmakers a little bit or whatever, you feel like you're in that circle. You feel just like William Miller backstage, like you're part

of the gang. You're not part of the gang. So even when you are an insider, I often feel like the outsider. And it's a movie fundamentally, like all coming of age movies are about figuring it out, about gaining experience about wisdom, and we get to gain that experience in wisdom through William Miller in the film. And I think just overall the fact that it's the type of film that gives you a scene like the one when Zoey Deschanel as Anita says, this song is why I'm

leaving home. She can't articulate to her mother why she's leaving.

them actually packing up the car. Now it's non diegetic. Now it's Crow playing it over the scene as they do head off, just like the protagonists in that great Simon and Garfunkle too.

And maybe that's going to point to some of the issues you had where the scenes altogether didn't quite flow as seamlessly as I remembered in my mind, which, of course you remember beloved movies like this as Greatest Hits elements, and it's sort of like maybe when you stumble across that track on the Greatest Hits album and you're so, I don't know why that's in there. There were maybe a few moments where you're like, oh, I've forgot this was in almost famous in general. I forgot there was

this much. Francis McDorman, Yes, I think realization, Yeah, I mean it's a I remember it being a through line

how his mother felt and the connection to her. But I didn't remember it being this good, including their scenes that are always talked about, like when she's on the phone with Russell and spins him around in an instant, But how about the one where she's exasperated at the end of her rope with William and I forget exactly what they're discussing at that point, but her response finally when she realizes he's gone, that there's nothing she can do about.

and that shows you how iconic has scenes. Yeah, right, And the way that you give Philip Seymour Hoffman four minutes and he'll make it feel like you just watched a feature.

enjoyed it quite a bit. Holden felt like he could relate to William Miller, even though he certainly doesn't have any sense of his appreciation for music, especially rock music. But the biggest change in me from that time I saw it in two thousand and one is I had so much more sympathy for the mom. I mainly saw her as comedy. It was there for comedic relief, and those scenes still are or maybe the funniest scenes in the movie anything with her and da Chanel and with

Patrick Fugue. But my kids they didn't see her as a villain exactly watching the movie, but on that Miller spectrum, from William who sees his mom as overwhelming but admirable and well intentioned, to Anita who sees her as soul crushingly overbearing. My kids saw her as closer to Anita, and I think the younger you are, you probably see her that way. Now as a parent, which I was not in two thousand and one, I'm way more in

tune with that character and her fears. And I don't know if it's the exact same scene you're thinking of or not, but I'd completely forgotten about the one where she is talking to William. It's one of the hallway scenes. It's not the one where Russell gets on. It's the one where they introduced the new girl who says she's correct orient or whatever, and William can't hear what his

mom's saying, and she's saying, I love you. And the way she breaks down at the end of that scene, camera Crow gives her a moment to herself, This mom who is emotional but who's otherwise had such kind of steely resolve. Actually with Anita in that moment she's just finally done. That really resonated with me.

We're just as invested in how his mom is experiencing, Yes, this journey he's on, almost as much as we're invested in William herself.

And the other really good McDorman moment, though there are so many we could point to, when the woman on the phone Freus a balk I think answers the phone in the room and she says, is this Maryanne with the pot and they cut back to McDorman and she just closes her eyes. It's just a very subtle close of the eyes. It's everything she feared could be happening has now been realized. In that moment with just that one line, all those moments between the family, I really

do think our gold and extremely funny. I even love the touch. And of course it's all about the details because it's Crow's real life, and whether he embellished this or not, it seems like one of those elements that

had to be authentic. The family whistle, right the way that she sends him off to that Black Sabbath concert and says look for me later and you know, if we can't find each other the whistle, and later in the film when he's walking away from Penny Lane, we actually do hear that whistle she is calling for him to come back to the car. There are some really nice moments too that we get visually from Crow in this movie that I wasn't aware of the first time

I saw. There's some symmetry in some of his shot choices. He likes to use that track forward when Anita is looking at him by the car before she goes and we get that close up one day You'll be cool, and that's echoed then in that shot of William's eyes close up when we get some of that later between him and Penny Lane, of course played by Kate Hudson, who we haven't really talked about here yet, And the love triangle shot is something he uses at least two times,

maybe three times. One of them is when still Water is playing the song Fever Dog. Russell's on stage, so William's standing next to Penny and Russell keeps looking over at them, and the way Crow uses point of view and the close ups, it's about Russell looking at them. Who's he looking at? Does William think he's looking at him and he's trying to impress him, or is he, of course trying to impress Penny Lane and that's who he's looking at, And the way William turns and sees her.

We get that again in some different scenes, like the one at the pool after Russell tells him just make us look cool. In that scene, Penny's the one now in the distance looking at the two of them standing next to each other, and we get that exact same type of love triangle cross cutting. That does underscore one of the key parts of the film, which is what Russell says at the end of the movie, which is we both wanted to be with her, She wanted us to be together.

the lead guitarist, and the tension there. We feel a lot of that in the camera work on stage, not only when they're in moments of tension, maybe even more so when the camaraderie is high and they're both in the same groove and you understand, as he says at one point, why he's still with these guys even though

he reckoned Nices. He has more talent than them. Yeah, but he may be able to find other bandmates who will put on a better show, but he won't have that vibe when he's on stage with these new guys that he has with these guys he's been playing with for years.

about how we're gonna go by a plane. We're gonna leave the bus behind. We can fit in more shows, we can make more money. It's all about business, business, business, and Crow, for some reason cuts in the voiceover from William's conversation with Philip Seymour Hoffmann about how he's here for the death Rattle. They're going to strangle all the life out of music. He underlines it for us in a way where just showing William Miller's face in that moment,

we know what he's thinking. We're all thinking it. We all remember that diner conversation with Hoffman's Lester Banks and we're thinking the same thing. He doesn't quite trust us there. I also really hate the scene, frankly that takes place

at Rolling Stone late in the film. He's turned the article in, Oh, we've now seen two scenes where they're fawning all over him and the piece he's in the room with Ben Fong Torres, and I should know who the other guy is because it's clearly Rain Wilson playing a real character from Rolling Stone lore, and they're fawning all over him, and then the fact checker comes in.

It's a terribly acted scene. It all happens way too Abroughly, they reject his story in like thirty seconds, right even though they've been just talking it up for the last five minutes, and they completely reverse their position and they don't even give him a chance to explain himself. And it goes from the cover to the garbage can just like that. And for me, the details, the very similitude of this movie are what's so key to making it great.

And Cameron Crow obviously knows this world, he knows the world of Rolling Stone, he knows what this process would actually be like. And in that moment, it's not even him going for an easy laugh. It's just a short cut. It's just a shortcut to then get out of that scene and get to something else. But I actually think it's a really important scene since the whole movie has been building up to William actually turning that piece in.

I understand them wanting to reject it, but how it's depicted I don't buy for a second.

that it's a choice of efficiency over atmosphere. All of those details you're talking about that are in the home scenes, well they're not going to be built out here, because all this is there to do is to set up the conflict between William and Russell and to fracture them in a way, or at least maybe not even fracture them, but set up that potential for their reunion and for

the reunion to be in a really satisfying way. So that's where you see the chess pieces being set up in the screenplay, and because everything else is so authentic and fully realized, it does absolutely stand out.

The scene straight out of Airplane when Sapphire is running along the bus and runs into the beam as the bus is pulling out of the stadium unnecessary at best.

a movie, everything about the scene. The only scene, actually, Josh in this entire film that really played terribly for me on this rewatch was the one right after Penny Lane takes all the quayludes and William Miller, as he says it boldly goes where many men have gone before.

It's uncomfortable. It's really uncomfortable, and it's it's made even more uncomfortable in a movie that has so many amazing musical cues to then have my Sharia more pop up on the soundtrack as we cut between William's kind of horrified face and these images of Kate Hudson's struggling legs and body kind of writhing as they're pumping or stomach. I understand, or at least I think I understand that

it's meant to be ironic. Sure, the music in that moment is meant to be ironic, because there's nothing romantic about what's happening, and I don't think the crow is suggesting there is. But that doesn't make it any more satisfying to watch. And it's another moment where I almost feel like it's intended to be a joke. It's so ironic that I don't understand how it can be anything but us reacting and laughing, almost like when you can't believe what you're watching and you recoil from it a

little bit and you let out a laugh. That's what I feel like he's going for in that moment, which I don't understand.

this lifestyle that the movie otherwise completely ignores. I mean, this is like, and I remember when this came out, there were people much more familiar with the rock scene of that era said, this is like the squeakiest, cleanest version of what was going on. And unless I'm missing something that's top of mind, you never get a hint of, you know, the cost of any of this hard living that is part of the rock and roll lifestyle into

this kind they at it. Francis McDormand talks about it, and there it's kind of laughed off, like she's the over concerning mother. Then all of a sudden it all is supposed to be like here's where she's been discarded as the sexual plaything. Here's where the overuse of drugs has severe, serious health costs. And it's like all this is bearing down on one sequel. It's just too much. It's it's not going to be able to do the work that I think Crow wants it to.

the characters. It's a moment like the airplane one where Crow's just going to laugh too, absolutely just going for the joke. He goes for the gag and I wish it wasn't there.

and I wanted to see what they were. And there is a scene, it's the one later in the film where they make the decision to spike the story. The band's talking outside a hotel and they're saying he wrote everything, he wrote the truth and Jason Lee's Jeff Beebe's all upset, and then we only get this sense that Russell Hammond may want to spike the story. He doesn't come out and say it. Well, actually, in the extended version of the movie, Jimmy Fallon does a bunch of talking there.

He convinces the band that this is a bad idea. It's a pretty good scene. You don't need it. The movie doesn't need it. But I actually kind of really like the scene. And there's a moment with the drummer where Billy Crudup says, again, this isn't in the cut that we all saw. Billy Crudup looks at him and says, you had the right idea the whole time to the drummer, and the drummer just kind of rolls his eyes. The joke being, of course, that his approach the whole time

to the journalist was to never say anything. So that's the whole thing. Is that one moment where he finally lets out this confession, the plane straightens out. I don't care, it's a bad.

someone who sees himself as separate from the band. He is gone past them now, as he himself verbalizes, and it's it's just not there on the screen. It's not at all. His sound may be incendiary. William Miller may have that right, but his playing isn't. And there's a reason why Cameron Crow always shoots him from behind.

And I'm just not sure where they went wrong. I mean, maybe they just did deliberately cast for what they thought Billy Krudup brought to the role as an actor, and they didn't broach it like the Coen Brothers with Oscar Isaac in Lewin Davis or some other movies where the musicianship really does matter and you have to believe it.

But I'm not sure how with Crow's background and Nancy Wilson, his wife's background, being one of the members of Heart, one of the founding members of Heart, I don't know how they didn't put more of an emphasis on that. I just think it's essential, Like I said, from every aspect of the band dynamic to that dynamic between William and him and his reverence for him. I like the performance overall. He's out of place on stage, and I think that matters.

is to not show the painting. Don't show us the poem, yeah, and let the performance and the other cinematic elements make you believe that it is that good.

And crut Up is a performer who's exactly built to play a character like this, who doesn't need to show us. He doesn't need to put on the screen, because in almost every one of his roles, he's this sort of guy who he slouches onto the screen because he doesn't one hundred percent want to be there. He doesn't need to be there. He's not an actor who has that that desire for attention that I feel right away, And I think that's part of Russell's issue too, is he's

there just essentially the end of the day. He's there to play, right. I mean, he takes advantage of all these other benefits that it has being a rock star. But he is exactly who he says to William and who William believes him to be, and who William worships because of it. Yeah, so I don't know.

the clothes and do the laundry. He goes to Russell's room, he's told to go away, and he just kind of breaks down there in the hallway. They finally do come out, Penny Lane and Russell, and they're talking to him and they're urging him to go on the road, to stay on the road and we'll do the interview at the next stop, and he says, I want to go home.

And I was instantly taken back to The Wizard of Oz, and I was thinking about Judy Garland being lost and wanting to go home and she has to go see the Wizard, who ultimately disappoints her before she can go home. And of course Russell Hammond here is the Wizard who completely disappoints him. When they finally do get to or finally get to connect here in the scene, and it's all about this whole movie is all about life on the road versus the real world back at home and

trying to avoid that type of life. And when Russell decides he needs to escape the fantasy of the road life and connect with real people in a real place.

really work at all and it's not needed. There are a couple moments here there that actually kind of like, including one exchange with Lester and William on the street, an extension of what we already see where remember he's asked by Lester, do you like lou Reid? And he says the early stuff, yeah, but now he's trying to be Bowie. He should just be himself. And I think the next line is do you take drugs? In the longer cut, he says, now he just wants to be Bowie,

should be himself. And Lester says, but if Lou's doing Bowie and Bowie's doing Lou, then isn't Lou still doing Lou? It's that little that extension I could have watched, of course, an entire film that was just those tho, well that's just it.

She is the center of everything. And we get that kind of scene where they go into that room early in the film at the Hyatt House and she starts speaking in French. And for me, Josh, every time I watch that scene, I completely lose her in that moment, and I'm never I'm never swept up in the glory and the magic of Penny Lane.

I realize it does revolve in the love triangle with the two male characters, but she also benefits, like Francis McDormand does, as having her own narrative within even that larger one that maybe related and tied to them, but also you come to really worry about where she's going to end up through all of this, and I think that's the element that Hudson sells when she finally does let that facade fall a little bit and she's no longer this bright, shining flower, but more of a trampled

one that's refusing to admit she's been stepped on until everybody sees it. And then you know, towards those scenes, and unfortunately they kind of tie in with the one in the hotel room where she does overdose that's trying to do other things too, But overall, I still think she's really strong here and is able to bring that sort of that lament and loss, that other flip side that the movie really needs.

like his portrayal pretty enough Luster Banks. Yeah, because I think the actual Lester Banks, you know, he had some great attributes to him, but the Philip Seymour Hoffman version is a little bit warmer and fuzzier, you know, So I know that's the one I always think of when I think of Lester Banks.

Cameron Crowe fan already. I mean, going back to say Anything, you know, I loved Say Anything as a kid, and I you know, and really every step along the way I was I mean, I knew Cameron Crowe as the screenwriter of Fast Times the Ridgemont High, you know, and I was aware of his you know background as a Rolling Stone journalist, you know, as I write about in my book, I was a big led Zeppelin fan, so I knew that he had, you know, interviewed led Zeppelin

file LEDs up when when he was a teenager. And like, what kind of fantasy is that, like if you are a teenage fan of led Zeppelin and to see this guy that had been able to hang out with the with Jimmy Page and Robbert Plant when he was in high school. So, you know, like when he when I heard that he was going to make a movie about basically his own life and talking about the Rolling Stone stuff, I mean, it was amazing. I was very excited about the movie. And then the movie came out and I

loved I loved the movie so much. I mean, you know, I think a lot of people love this movie. But if you are a music writer, if you're a rock critic, it really is like just a whole other level, I think where it's like being an investigative reporter and watching all the presidents met or being a fighter pilot and watching top gun, you know, or a lawyer and watching a few good Men. You know, it's like it is the ultimate sort of fantasy of what you would want

to do. And like you said, I was just starting out in my career when this movie came out. Almost Famous came out in two thousand and one, so I graduated from college in two thousand, so I was already working, and I was working for my hometown paper at the time, and I think I knew at that point that the days where you would go on the road with a rock band for like three weeks were like long gone, Like you know, like I was pretty naive about how,

you know, journalism worked. I think still at that point, but I knew that that was totally a remnant of the past. But you know, loving seventies rock and being a music writer, I mean, this was just the ultimate movie for me, and the ultimate sort of fantasy. And it's kind of stayed that way ever since. I mean, I feel like this movie among music critics sort of fashionable to discredit this movie, you know, to say that like, well, you know, it's just a fantasy.

connects and comes together really beautifully in that movie. I mean, I feel like if there was any movie that he was going to hit out of the park, it was that one. Yeah, you know, and for me, it totally holds up even now when I revisit it.

at it more as a fantasy. You know, and not saying that it wouldn't be authentic as someone who was a journalist in the seventies, but it's more of like what I wish I could have been through, you know, I wish I could have had the opportunity to be on the road with one band for like weeks and to just immerse myself in the world of a band and like all the things that they go through, because there's no way you get that kind of opportunity now.

If you can spend a day with a band, that's pretty incredible, And I've had the chance to do that, you know, here and there right, and that's pretty great. But like you know where you're going to, like you're going like across the country. It's a different venues, and you're like you're in dressing rooms and you're watching the lead singer and the guitarists argue about the tour shirt. You know, like you're there's no way a publicist would ever let you do that now. But that doesn't detract

from the movie from me. In a way, it makes me value the movie more because I get to I can at least live vicariously through William Miller. You know, I can I'm not going to be able to hang out with still Water, but I can hang out with William Miller while he's hanging out with Stillwater and have a proxy experience, you know, through this movie.

bit too broad crow going for punchlines. But the one we disagreed with, and I really do want to hear your take, is the performance of Billy crutt Up and really more the depiction of Russell Hammond and the fact that they clearly cast someone who doesn't really have any musical ability or who isn't playing the guitar, and he's maybe not quite the artist that everyone else makes him out to be and that William seems to think he is. Do you agree with that take or disagree?

weren't too good they succeed aus. The idea was that this was an up and coming early seventies band, but like not a great seventies band, like one of those again, one of those Middle American sort of boogie rock bands that would have been big at the time but ultimately forgettable.

And I think, you know, like when they talk about him being a great artist, I think the authenticity in that is that when whenever you're in a band situation and you're talking to artists, you know, there's always that one person in the band that everyone talks about being great, you know, where they talk about this person with a certain amount of awe, and it's the reality that gets treated in the sphere of a band. You know where there has to be one genius, but you step outside

of that, and that person rarely is a genius. You know. They're just a pretty good musician that somehow form this band and convinced everyone around him that he was great. And I really think that that is what Crow is going for. I don't think the point is that Russell Hammond actually is this genius. It's that the people around

him think that he's a genius. I think of that movie like had a sequel that was set like in nineteen eighty or nineteen eighty one, like Russell Hammond would probably be on the downswing of his career, you know, And I think, I mean, to me, that's how I feel, like, that's how I read the movie anyway. So yeah, I don't know. I love the sort of like mediocrity of Stillwater. Yeah,

in the Bank, I think it's in the movie. I mean, I think that's totally works and that does feel truer to life in a lot of ways that Crow did it that way.

Most people are just pretty good and they put out pretty good music for a while and then they sort of drift away, you know, and that's fine, you know, but like when you're in the moment, you know, everyone is a genius, we're the best, we're gonna be We're gonna be the next led Zeppelin, and you go for it and you try your best, and then you inevitably fail and and you go away. You know, that's the trajectory of almost every single rock band ever.