Steve Coogan, we might assume, fancies himself as the new Peter Sellers. He stars here as Tony Wilson, a real-life Mancunian TV news presenter whose leisure-time fascination with the local music scene led him to create Factory, an all-purpose label covering everything from records to clubs and posters (catalogue number FAC 191 was the Hacienda cat). 24 Hour Party People is a scattershot celebration of Manchester music, told from the perspective of Wilson's often demented adventures with Factory, highlighting two key music movements (New Wave with Joy Division and 'Madchester' with the Happy Mondays and the Hacienda). Wilson is the fool-cum-genius ringmaster to proceedings: think perhaps of a more droll and intellectual Ed Wood - the joke being that Wilson is just the sort of pretentious ninny who would love to have a film made about him.
There's no faulting the almost insane ambition of the film, striving as it does to evoke a city and its sprawling music culture over nearly two decades. It's full of energy and invention, and in this respect it's the first British film since Trainspotting to capture the unique texture and verve of modern life on these shores. But although it deserves to be loudly applauded for trying, it ultimately fails to satisfy. The whole piece stands or falls on Coogan's pivotal role, and although he's a wonderful comic performer, he's as yet no actor, incapable of playing anything but exaggerations of himself. Tony Wilson, though, is a real and distinct character, and Coogan's portrayal, whilst game, never really throws off the shackles of being an impersonation.
This lack of substance and depth is what hampers proceedings most. The variety of stylistic techniques employed within - the cast of thousands; Robby Muller's patented Dogme-esque hand-held camera; the frantic comic pace and postmodern touches - only work to distance us from the characters and events when we dearly need to be drawn in. There's much fun to be had from watching the giddy circus played out, but the low-fi visuals are only rarely as dazzling inventive as they ought to be to carry it off with flying colours. Ultimately- the old British curse - it looks unsettlingly like television.
Reader comments about 24 Hour Party People
Mikey ! (myka19@hptmail.com) writes:
well, i thought that this was going to be an ok film but i thought that it was the biggest piece of garbage that i had seen in ages, some parts were funny others were just dumb.
the only thing i was angry about is that i paid to go and waste my time
stephen lea (Email address withheld) writes:
This is a great film if you were part of or in the manchester scene and the music. As a new order Joy Division and Mondays fan the film was entaining and almost documentary like made for fans of madchester. If you couldn't give a toss about the music or the scene, stay clear although I still think it has some great moments and should get you listening to some good music.
Taisho (Email address withheld) writes:
Anyone expecting a staid documentary or a slick 'drama based on actual events' with a neatly structured plotline is going to be disppointed. This is the cinematic equivalent of a semi-abstract painting - not photo-realism.
Personally I thought is was all the better for that and loved it. Some of the criticisms I've read resemble those made when the Impressionist painters burst onto the scene and invented modernism; 'Its not finished!', 'Its just an incoherent mess!'. Rather that than some slick, predictable (and dull...) Hollywood blockbuster. Personally I hope when they release the DVD it has 2 more hours of deleted scenes stuck in there willy-nilly and the devil with the critics :)
Nick Ward (Email address withheld) writes:
I personally found Steve Coogan very annoying in the lead role and thought he played Wilson as an extension of Alan Partridge !
I have to agree that the finished product as a whole was disjointed and at times lifeless. However, it did fill in some factual gaps in my knowledge of the New Wave/Madchester scene and provided some hilarious moments (the Ryder brothers poisoning pigeons being one of my favourites).
It did leave many questions unanswered though - Why did Ian Curtis commit suicide and was Wilson really that naive ?
geeves (geevesy@waitrose.com) writes:
I cannot find anybody to answer this question:
In the DVD deleted scenes, who is that singer insulting Tony Wislon from the stage as the owner of factory records enters the premises. He sings a parody of the Beatles' "she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah".
Forgive me if it is supposed to be Ian Curtis (doesn't look like him), I have reason to believe that it was supposed to be Ian Brown of the Stone Roses.
Manckey (lovecomedown@tescos.com) writes:
Alan Partridge is lovely, he has a great feel for pathos. 24 hour Party People is in keeping with it's subject matter, an anticlimax. Beliefs are boring, you are forgiven for supposing, don't do it again.
hacienda (Email address withheld) writes:
The problem with reviewers sometimes is that they presume they can do a better job than the actors in portraying their roles. Anything is possible it seems in between burps smelling of beer and potato chips.
The reviewer above just sinks a notch lower and makes a presumption on the movie's real-life subject: Tony Wilson wasn't worth up to much. If anything, this reviewer thinks Tony Wilson played little more than a buffoon's role in the emergence of new music chronicled in this movie. What a presumptuous fool!
Without the entrepeneurial spirit of the avuncular Tony Wilson, Factory Records and all the bands it took under its wings would have been only a dream, a fantastic idea still waiting to happen. (And yes, it even nurtured poster-making stragglers like Peter Saville.) Even today, the loss of Factory Records has left a gaping hole in modern music. Aficionados have to content themselves with reissues of albums from the lost era over which Wilson presided.
The review above simply betrays its loathing for the music documented in this film. For fans who feel orphaned by the passing of that era, it takes little: the sight of Ian Curtis perfoming his spastic dance on stage makes this a movie worth watching.
Mike Carter (mikejc74@hotmail.com) writes:
People seem to miss the point here.
It's a very constructed film. We see the editing suite - Tony (Coogan) talks to us directly - there are countless scenes set in a TV studio - we see unrealistic puppet pigeons dropping from the sky and - in my personal highlight - Bez lands from space.
Much as Tony Wilson likes to talk about himself - this is a film that films itself.
It makes reviewing it practically impossible. X was weak - well we know - Y didn't quite work - yeah we kinda skipped that bit - Z was brilliant - I know lets show you it again.
It's supposed to be a headrush. It won't change your life - but then its not meant to.
My advice? Get drunk - and like a bangin' tune from the days of the Hacienda - let it wash over you.
dmeca (Email address withheld) writes:
I,m looking for a song from this film is played in the "hacienda", and this one begins with a siren. Could anybody help me?
Calum Waddell (Email address withheld) writes:
Seeing this film again recently reminded me of how good it is. I think this is the best movie Winterbottom ever did.
Calum Waddell
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