Everything about 24 Hour Party People is good enough to keep you interested. It's really the epitome of the independent film - take a unconventional storytelling approach to a neglected subject, get some good actors and improvise a little. The result in this case is wholly satisfying. Sure, I had some minor complaints - the titles are impossible to read and some parts of the story get passed over so fast you get confused. But this film more than makes up for those drawbacks in good acting, spirited direction and of course music.
The film is made in the spirit of the culture it is documenting - artistically ambitious, loose and willing to take chances to be different. To this end it makes use of a great script device - every so often the character of music impresario/TV host Tony Wilson (played brilliantly by Steve Coogan) will pause in the middle of a scene and explain to the camera what's going on, who's involved, and why it's important. In another film this might seem precious and contrived but here it works beautifully. The film begins with Wilson attending the Sex Pistols first performance in Manchester in the late 70's (along with a lowly forty or so other people, many of whom figure into the story later) and ends up with the closing of his renowned Hacienda club in the late 80's. In between we get the birth and death of Joy Division, the rise of New Order, money, sex, drugs, dancing, Factory Records, the death of several thousand pigeons, The Happy Mondays, record contracts, drugs, tours, shootouts, divorces, drugs, marriages, the birth of rave culture and more drugs.
Everyone involved does a great job, and by the time it's over you will have had a great time and possibly a much better understanding of a very interesting time in musical (and social) history.
The film is made in the spirit of the culture it is documenting - artistically ambitious, loose and willing to take chances to be different. To this end it makes use of a great script device - every so often the character of music impresario/TV host Tony Wilson (played brilliantly by Steve Coogan) will pause in the middle of a scene and explain to the camera what's going on, who's involved, and why it's important. In another film this might seem precious and contrived but here it works beautifully. The film begins with Wilson attending the Sex Pistols first performance in Manchester in the late 70's (along with a lowly forty or so other people, many of whom figure into the story later) and ends up with the closing of his renowned Hacienda club in the late 80's. In between we get the birth and death of Joy Division, the rise of New Order, money, sex, drugs, dancing, Factory Records, the death of several thousand pigeons, The Happy Mondays, record contracts, drugs, tours, shootouts, divorces, drugs, marriages, the birth of rave culture and more drugs.
Everyone involved does a great job, and by the time it's over you will have had a great time and possibly a much better understanding of a very interesting time in musical (and social) history.