And, folks, for my money, it's one of the best films of the year, and one of the best films Cameron Crowe has ever made. Patrick Fugit plays the Crowe character, here known as Billy Miller. William backs into his job at Rolling Stone , and gets the assignment of going on the road with Stillwater, an opening act working their way up the ladder. Billy learns the lesson quickly, because he can't even get past security on his first attempt to contact the band. Once there, Billy's in for the long haul.
Drug use is accepted as the norm, and, yes, the norm can backfire in harsh ways.
Crowe has the ability to pen dialogue that just transcends writing. He writes words that sound like real conversation, and that's no small feat in this day of high speeches and perfectly worded sound bytes. If you doubt this, look back at some of the dialogue from Say Anything and Jerry Maguire . And, this time, Crowe is writing from his own life, so he knows all too well what was said, and needed to be said. Combine this scripting style with his easygoing flow of direction, and that should be enough.