24 Hour Party People

Released 1990
Stars Steve Coogan, Keith Allen, Rob Brydon, Enzo Cilenti, Ron Cook, Chris Coghill
Directed by Michael Winterbottom

Director Michael Winterbottom re-creates the colorful, reckless world of Manchester, England, in the 1970s in this ambitious story about the birth of punk. Focusing on Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), the journalist/band manager/label president/club owner who was one of the major forces behind the movement, Winterbottom's exuberant movie features improvised performances and fast, guerilla-like filming.

Summary from www.netflix.com

This movie is a lot of fun. It helped me that I had some knowledge of the bands and the music, because it's difficult to tell everyone apart. A friend (Raj Singh) played some Joy Division for me several years ago, and there were two hauntingly beautiful songs that I adored and have always remembered. "Atmosphere" was my favorite, and I anxiously waited for it to be played in the movie. They saved it for Ian Curtis' funeral, which was a nice choice, but I was disappointed they didn't play the whole thing. I may just have to buy the CD now...

Anyway, the narrator/main character, Tony Wilson, is hilarious. From what I can tell, the movie exaggerates his buffoonish quality to add comic relief, but they seem to have captured the spirit of the man. He's an easy combination of pomposity and self-deprecation, and you get a glimpse of this from his commentary track on the DVD as well. He loves to reference the great thinkers and artists in man's history, but then he compares them to idiots like Shaun Ryder, the singer for Happy Mondays. Tony takes himself and everyone around him much too seriously, and the filmmakers understood this. They used this to create an interesting, compelling guide to the Manchester music scene of the era. They also play hard and fast with the facts, much to the real Tony Wilson's chagrin, but they capture the spirit of the scene from an angle I haven't seen before. They also bring the punk attitude to filmmaking by gleefully breaking the rules. It's a blast to watch them create this hybrid mockumentary that has the main character talking to the camera while occasionally pausing the action to tell us what certain characters will do in the future, or to point out the real-life musicians in their cameos, or to tell us a scene was deleted but will probably be on the DVD. Those playful moments really make this movie fun. --Bill Alward, March 2, 2003