I photographed the Happy Mondays in 1990, the film about the subject, its origin and expanded universe of its surrounding phenomenon came out in 2002, and the film's real life main character died about six months ago, completely off the map to my...
[+] Read Full Review

I photographed the Happy Mondays in 1990, the film about the subject, its origin and expanded universe of its surrounding phenomenon came out in 2002, and the film's real life main character died about six months ago, completely off the map to my fellow Americans. I just saw the movie for the first time last night on cable. Are we all too late to the dinner table?

Nosirree. Share the fun in retrospect, for the film "24 Hour Party People" remains one of the alltime best music films ever, wholly successful in conveying its subject matter accurately- despite its Python-esque edge- and bringing to life a specialty music understandable to the non-cognescienti. It's also hilarious, insider-joke-heavy which matters not a whit to non-insiders cinematically overall, and features a commanding, intellectually fun and dry as champagne performance by its lead, Steve Coogan (already godhead to myself and others for his "Alan Partridge" satire on punitively vacuous talk shows.) "24 Hour Party People" traces the beginning, full flowering and decline of the Rave phenom,first pollinated in Manchester, England before germinating worldwide,as it was engineered by a single human being, Tony Wilson. Wilson found the bands, started the music label, owned the main music/dance club and held it all together, all the while keeping his "day job" as a British television personality, both reporting features and and even helming the U.K. "Wheel of Fortune!" The movie follows Wilson's dry-humored (over-educated Oxbridge bombast as sound bytes, and solumnly intoned asideswith narration like "This is my date Miss United Kingdom. I like her for herself. I know what you're thinking, and we're still together!") ascent and decline, and that of his colleagues, while being utterly true to its subject and as entertaining as if Monty Python fashioned a music documentary. Biographical depictions include Ian Curtis and Joy Division, Happy Mondays and New Order, all ascending and declining as well. Actor Andy Serkis (Gollum) turn as a renegade producer is a hoot, and the music is to die for (as Curtis unfortunately proved.) My personal ethos of non-censorship comes into play in recommending this picture whole-heartedly, since there's an animal cruelty scene that I personally must fast-forward, and a LOT of (don't do as we did boys and girls, do as we should have done) drug-taking, but these indeed further the story.And it's a singularly fascinating one of a lone, creative man finding himself, as he puts it, "in the right place, with the right music, the right bands, the right record label, the right club and the right drugs, all at the right time." The place was Manchester, England, the man was Tony Wilson, and the movie was "24 Hour Party People." They are still yours to enjoy immensely.

Ok, its a very nice movie. But i dont like the style of it very much. The direction is great and the actors are nice. However, sometimes it doesn't seem to give a point.