24 Hour Party People
(2002)
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Staggeringly versatile director Michael Winterbottom follows up his epic Western THE CLAIM with a period piece of a completely different variety. A sprawling, visceral tribute to the legendary Manchester music scene that flourished between the years of 1976 and 1992, 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE recreates that influential era with reckless exuberance. In order to bring structure to the tale, Winterbottom and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce focus their attentions on Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), the man who was responsible for making it all happen. A television reporter by day, Wilson also led a notorious double life as band manager (Joy Division, the Happy Mondays, James), label president (Factory Records), and club owner (The Hacienda). Fiercely determined and dangerously stubborn, Wilson's energy gave an entire subculture of Manchester youths their place in the spotlight, forever changing the face of popular music in the process. Shot by acclaimed cinematographer Robby Muller in faded digital video, Winterbottom's pulsating film tears through its subject matter like an ecstasy induced history lesson. The performances are flawless from top to bottom, most notably Wilson, Sean Harris, Paddy Considine, John Simm, and Danny Cunningham. A must-see for music aficionados, Winterbottom's film is also worth viewing for its sheer sense of hyperkinetic entertainment. |
Prolific director Michael Winterbottom is unafraid of mythologising a slice of recent musical/cultural history in this comedy drama, which tells the story of the rise and fall of Manchester's Factory Records and the world-famous Hacienda nightclub. Using TV presenter and Factory impresario Tony Wilson to tell the tale — often directly to camera — is the movie's masterstroke. Wilson, played with relish by Steve Coogan, is in real life a self-publicist of gigantic proportions, so when he compares shambolic Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder (an uncanny impersonation by Danny Cunningham) to WB Yeats, you take it with a pinch of salt but buy into it anyway. Unlikely to make sense to anyone who didn't experience the music and mania of the “Madchester” years — and yet bound to enrage those who were there with its flippant abuse of documentary truth — this is an infectious, well-cast blend of evocative energy, fine vintage music and irreverent humour.
Halliwell's Film Guide
A true story, of drugs and rock, of pop success and business failure, that is treated as low comedy; it will be enjoyed by those who can relate to the music and the brief years when Manchester bands were significant.