This was basically thrown away by MGM, to audiences which had to find it themselves. Which is somewhat in keeping with a record label whose products had to be sought out, then correctly deciphered (Factory products weren't labeled, as such). Only here, all the promotional materials were limp and half-hearted (poster, DVD box, marketing, etc). Never hand the marketing of counterculture to the timid drones who work at a mass-market studio like MGM.
This assembles the Factory/Joy Division/Happy Mondays/Manchester story for those who came late to the game, or were geographically out of the picture. Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan) acts as historian, tour guide, and chronicler of the Manchester scene that produced the hideously over-valued and mythologized Joy Division. The technique is to acknowledge that we're watching a movie now and again which spares it from a typical plot line, and emotional arc. Plot-schmott, just enjoy yourself watching a maverick music guru getting dragged down by a nightclub that's become an anchor around his neck. The movie has gotten way off track by the time Tony is taking credit for rave culture which has zero to do with the the initial impetus of putting together a label for a bunch of angry, anti-social, post-punk bands. Rave culture is about as angry as numbing yourself with drugs to look at pretty colors; and disappearing into your own baby-boomer-offspring selfishness ethos. The original Factory acts would have been punching these big babies.
Still I'd trade anything to live in a world of thirty billion Tony Wilsons (as remade here). He's always either smart, or funny, except when it comes to business. And the movie is infinitely better and more enjoyable than the similar 'Studio 54,' with Mike Myers as Steve Rubell. As everyone has noted it runs too long, and loses steam.
This assembles the Factory/Joy Division/Happy Mondays/Manchester story for those who came late to the game, or were geographically out of the picture. Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan) acts as historian, tour guide, and chronicler of the Manchester scene that produced the hideously over-valued and mythologized Joy Division. The technique is to acknowledge that we're watching a movie now and again which spares it from a typical plot line, and emotional arc. Plot-schmott, just enjoy yourself watching a maverick music guru getting dragged down by a nightclub that's become an anchor around his neck. The movie has gotten way off track by the time Tony is taking credit for rave culture which has zero to do with the the initial impetus of putting together a label for a bunch of angry, anti-social, post-punk bands. Rave culture is about as angry as numbing yourself with drugs to look at pretty colors; and disappearing into your own baby-boomer-offspring selfishness ethos. The original Factory acts would have been punching these big babies.
Still I'd trade anything to live in a world of thirty billion Tony Wilsons (as remade here). He's always either smart, or funny, except when it comes to business. And the movie is infinitely better and more enjoyable than the similar 'Studio 54,' with Mike Myers as Steve Rubell. As everyone has noted it runs too long, and loses steam.