24 Hour Party People

source: 24 Hour Party People

One is first tempted to greet 'Twenty Four Hour Party People', the story of the rise and fall of Factory Records, with a groan on discovering that 80s (and even 90s) nostalgia is already with us. But at least the film is made by Michael Winterbottom whose movies, some brilliant and some not, at least have the merit that each one is quite unlike the others. Which means that some freshness is virtually guaranteed, and Witnerbottom tells this story in an irreverent, self-knowing fashion that is at least lively, although it does sometimes give the film the feel of low-budget sitcom. This feeling is also enhanced by the casting of comedian Steve Coogan, an actor of little depth, as Factory Records boss Tony Wilson. Like Coogan's famous alter-ego Alan Partridge Wilson was a TV presenter, but it is hard to tell whether he was quite as similar to Partridge as this film suggests, or if Coogan simply isn't up to the job of playing a different character. And the decision to tell the story of Wilson also seems strange: he was not a kid whose life was transformed, or a singer whose songs were sung the world over: he even kept his day job, and there's little underlying character development in his story. Rationally, this isn't a very good film, although it's actually quite watchable, and all the more so if you have lived through this era, and listened to the music as it was new. But there are lots of potentially interesting stories, like the death of Ian Curtis, or the wave of idealism that briefly flourished with the coming of Ecstasy, which could have been covered with a bit more feeling. This movie is fun, but perhaps also a wasted opportunity; others who revisit this era will surely have more to say.

So Alan Partridge was based upon Tony Wilson ? I always genuinely believed that Coogan's legendary comedy character was based on Richard Madeley but watching the real Tony Wilson's pretentious egotistical and painfully insincere conversations on television I suppose there is a bit of Wilson in Partridge - Or is the fact that Coogan plays Wilson in this biographical movie something that prejudices my view ? Come to think of it Wilson's body language and hand gestures remind me far more of Tony Blair than anyone else . I digress 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE is a highly self indulgent mockumentary film centered on the creation of Manchester based Factory Records . Highly self indulgent in the way it brings to the narrative things that only the real life characters know or give a toss about . Things like the real life Howard DeVoto ( It's okay I've never heard of him either ) addressing the camera and saying " I can't remember that bit " . That's nice to know Howard because Western Civilisation was resting on this part of the plot - If not the entire movie . I'm sure we can all rest easy in our beds knowing the truth and I look forward to the sequel PEOPLE TONY Wilson KNOWS AND THEIR HOME MOVIES Two things make the movie worth watching for me ... 1 ) The eclectic cast featuring people as diverse as Andy Serkis , Christopher Ecclestone , Peter Kay and Jack Duckworth's son 2 ) The soundtrack . Most especially Joy Division , a band that was (in)famous for its bleak , nihilistic tones and the bizarre on stage antics of Ian Curtis and praise too for Sean Harris who captures Curtis's mannerism perfectly But unless you've enjoyed the music of at least one Manchester band be it Joy Division , New Order or The Happy Mondays you might not want to join this party

Welcome to the wonderful world of Wilson. Tony Wilson, that is. Tony is a Cambridge graduate, a fed up local TV reporter, the genius founder of the Hacienda Club and Factory Records, and of course - as key players in this movie constantly point out to him - a complete and utter "c**t". Worried that "Joy Division" is a bad name for a band, given its Nazi associations? Tony will wave you away with a cry of "haven't you ever heard of semiotics? Does post-modernism mean nothing to you?". Keen to get a record contract but anxious not to sell your soul to some pop Svengali? Tony will cut his hand and write out a "walk away, anytime" guarantee in his own blood. Fancy an all night rave with the Happy Mondays? Tony will splash out two thirds of a million quid on a truly cool new club, where the bar never makes any money because everyone is E'd up to their ears and only the dealers are cashing in. Want a free trip to Barbados, to party on while you should be cutting a record? Tony's company will fly you there first class, and won't even notice that you haven't recorded any lyrics until they plonk the final DAT tape on the hi-fi system back at company HQ (where the ludicrous designer table costs £30,000, a typical Wilson excess that provokes a fellow director to violence during a board meeting). Meanwhile, Tony keeps up the day job as a reporter for Granada TV. Tony brings us the duck that herds sheep, the town crier who belts out the news of the suicide of Ian Curtis, Joy Division's lead singer, with a look of blank incomprehension, and of course the old git who used to work on Manchester ship canal in the days of Queen Victoria but can't remember anything about it. Just as well, really, despite his despairing cries to his producer of "I'm a Cambridge English graduate!" and "Of course I take myself seriously!" Just as well because Factory Records, the Hacienda Club and the whole Wilson empire is built on air, and inevitably implodes leaving nothing behind but some bad hangovers and even worse debts. But Wilson achieves his apotheosis, and we see that behind the convincing facade of "c**t" there is something admirable. When offered £5 million for the whole operation by some greasy London record company he points out that the entire record of his business is the orginal non-contract, written in his own blood and now framed above the opulent company table. "I avoided selling out", he explains, "by the simple expedient of never acquiring anything worth selling". Wilson is played by Steve Coogan, an English comedian highly rated in this country for TV shows such as "This is Alan Patridge". Previous Coogan film efforts have been failures. In this he has merely followed so many English comedians before him (remember Morecambe and Wise in "The Intelligence Men"? No, of course you don't). But this performance is really excellent, rightly making Wilson seem absurd, pretentious, annoying, frivolous and lovable all at once. Sean Harris is magnetic in a too brief performance as Ian Curtis, who had too brief a life. Danny Cunningham is fine as Sean Ryder, who still survives, despite his best endeavours. (In one of the film's more alarming moments, Ryder and his mates put Tom Lehrer's injunction to Poison a Pigeon in the Park into full effect.) Followers of British comedy and music will enjoy spotting dozens of other guest appearances. Michael Winterbottom directs efficiently, and the movie has just enough of Wilson's vaunted post-modern detachment to lend a sense of irony while avoiding annoyance. The soundtrack, which being largely from Factory Records' back catalogue is Wilson's lasting monument, is wonderful. See this movie.

Like any other movie about rock music, documentary or not, '24 Hour Party People' packs its fair share of inside material and self-indulgent frivolity. Due to a crammed timeframe of 20 years (essentially one big juggling act of people, bands and events) connecting all the dots required multiple viewings, even if I had certain prior knowledge of the Manchester music scene in the late '70s, '80s and the early '90s. Making matters still more difficult is the variety of extremely thick accents - to a point of entire sections of dialogue or monologue occasionally flying by with only a single word or two actually registering with me. While it added to film's authenticity, that got to be more than a bit annoying after a while. Where's that closed captioned TV set when you desperately need it? As far as the treatment of the subjects themselves goes, the movie does an adequate job. I mean, when it gets right down to it, the only structure such a film can more-or-less follow is the basic listing of a series of real events (and in this particular case most of them already well documented). Naturally, as such it doesn't allow for a whole lot of substantial artistic freedom so the director employs many little asides, winks and nudges by our narrator Tony Wilson (often through the 'fourth wall') as well as visual tricks and, obviously, music to make this different from, say, something you might see on VH1's 'Behind the Music'. In addition to being one of the major driving forces behind the whole scene, Tony also held a full-time job at Granada TV all throughout this period, which the movie uses skillfully for comic relief. Predictably (not that I'm complaining), things like: Ian Curtis' suicide, the opening of the Haçienda club, ascent and demise of Factory Records, Shaun Ryder's famously out-of-control & self destructive shenanigans, all receive special treatment. Through Steve Coogan's excellent performance, Tony Wilson, our guide through this zoo, comes off as a pretty fascinating fellow. Director Michael Winterbottom makes a wise choice in leaving out many details from his private life in favour of the music itself and the people who created it. Wilson's second wife and kids, for example, are barely mentioned - with a cheeky remark about Tony being a minor character in his own life story as an explanation for the lack of on-screen time devoted to them. In the end, whether or not you enjoy '24 Hour Party People' will largely, if not entirely, depend on your level of familiarity or appreciation of the bands like Joy Division, New Order, The Happy Mondays and to a lesser extent of their punk inspirations and predecessors like The Stranglers, The Jam, Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie and the Banshees, who are also depicted in the film. Personally, even though I was always aware of the British new wave, most of its music & 'shtick' pretty much slipped under my radar so I recently started discovering it retroactively. Therefore, it was a blast to see a well-done, interesting film celebrating that era in popular music. These blokes created & performed honest, full-blooded, passionate tunes, which is the single most important thing that comes through the movie. P.S: The Smiths, another famous and influential Manchester band are notably absent from much of the film. This is probably due to the fact that back in 1983 both Tony and New Order producer/manager Rob Gretton agreed their demo was crap, so instead to Factory they went to Rough Trade Records based in London. They're mentioned briefly at the end, though, when Tony speaks to God himself who among other things tells him: "it's a pity you didn't sign The Smiths". :) Brilliant!

"24 Hour Party People" is another film which reaches critical mess with a vast chasm between the salivating film critics and a dumbfounded public. A very smart docudrama about a very boring subject with an even more boring, trite, and conceited story, "24 Hour...." follows Coogan through the genesis of a Manchester, England punk band (sort of). Bottom line here is, if you never heard of Joy Division, New Order, Factory Records, or Tony Wilson then you probably won't care about this film. I don't listen to punk, never attended a rave, etc. and was pretty much bored through-out the film. It's clever quirkiness (sheep herding goose, poisoned pigeons, etc) is the only thing which kept me awake and mildly amused. For 24 hour party people only. (B-)

This movie, or whatever it entails itself to be, is nothing but a collection of small parts that make it totally unreliable. It is so boring, so tedious and dank, that one not only begins to hate the British, because they are portrayed as chain-smoking, cussing, whoring, vermin who do nothing but say the F word and sit on the cold sidewalk. The film was supposed to be about the Factory record label, which signed up one of the best bands of all time, Joy Division, but as the actors are so terrible, all we get is the Ian Curtis look alike who does nothing but prance around the stage all day pretending to look cool. This movie is not recommend to anyone at all because it isn't even a good tool for sleep. It is absolutely disgusting and ridiculous .

There's more to this than meets the eye. You may like it simply for the music. Superficially, it is a one of those things unsuitably called a "docudrama," a category that I don't quite understand. But here's the way it is constructed. We have a fellow whose job is to show viewers around odd and interesting things. He's a character who takes on a metarole in the film as our guide, sometimes within the movie and sometimes stepping out of it and speaking directly to us, using several modes. And the subject of this carefully folded structure? Anarchism. Music as anarchy, as specifically breaking the musical equivalent of narrative. I'm not sure that anyone can honestly like this music without making the commitment themselves. Otherwise, its a sort of perverse voyeurism, but I guess that's what drives the music business. Winterbottom isn't a halfway kinda guy though, and you should be inclined to share anything he serves up. Here, he is back in the German new wave mode, where there is no story at all. No arc, no climax. Each event just sort of falls into the next. The camera (which takes the role of the watcher within, Tony, and the watcher without) similarly falls. To underscore this, Winterbottom has Ian Curtis hang himself in front of a TeeVee. On that is playing Herzog's Stroszek, dancing chicken and the amuck truck. Its Herzog's film with the same attitude: no narrative, a loss of narrative is the narrative or where the hole is. After that death, incidentally, is one of the most haunting images I've seen. I do not think it is taken from another film. Children in Klan suits, some black, parade in a highly stylized 2d shot, then one carries a huge, erect Klan hat on a false color beach and tumbles. You might consider this the male lover of "9 Songs." I do. Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

I love New Order and like Joy Division, though I've never been a real Happy Mondays fan. So I figured this film would be entertaining. How can you go wrong with something named '24 hour party people'? Unfortunately, I got so bored in the theater I fell asleep. So I can't give a good plot analysis, but I can say that very few films have put me to sleep...

Targeted to fans of post-punk Brit music, this is the loosely told tale of 15 years in the life of TV personality and failed music producer Tony Wilson, who put Manchester on the map of musically relevant UK cities. The tale starts in 1976, when Wilson, already working as TV show host, was one of the 42 people who attended the Sex Pistols "concert" in Manchester and understood that the future of pop music lie with them, rather than in prog, glam or big bands. Wilson started producing Joy Division and other less famous groups with his Factory label and then bought The Hacienda, creating the pre-acid/extasy club scene that exploded in the 90s. Although Wilson was involved with many groups, the story is roughly divided between the late 70s (Factory Records, Joy Division) and the mid-80s (the Hacienda, Happy Monday). New Order, a very successful band, born from the ashes of Joy Division is totally neglected. The film wraps up in the early 90s, with the sale of the Hacienda and the bankruptcy of Factory Records, Wilson never having been able to manage anything, except his journalistic career. Apart from the unimpressive soundtrack, the other problems of the film are: the non-linear time frame, used randomly, such as showing Ian Curtis's suicide and then him on stage for no discernible reasons the blurry photography the shaky, handheld camera the intrusive and repeated use of "melting titles" the constant presence of Coogan, delivering lines in a flat monotone and acting like a total jerk the all-obnoxious cast of drug addicts, mean spirited, juvenile "musicians" "This movie is about the music, I am just a secondary character, even in my own story" states falsely Steve Coogan, but "Tony" is almost in every single scene AND narrating some of the events, so that his presence is actually overbearing. On the whole, despite my liking of the music and my wanting to like this movie, I found it disappointing, amateurish and badly made.