24 Hour Party People
by Michael Winterbottom
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Actor: John Thomson, Lennie James, Nigel Pivaro, Shirley Henderson, Steve CooganDirector: Michael Winterbottom
Cinematographer: Robby M?ller
Producer: Andrew Eaton
Producer: Fiona Neilson
Producer: Gina Carter
Producer: Henry Normal
Producer: Robert How
Writer: Frank Cottrell Boyce
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-01-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of 24 Hour Party People
DVD Review: Fun party, if you were invited.
Summary: 4 Stars
You might not like this film if you love Joy Division. I know it made me queasy the first time I saw it. There is something very callous about the way Ian Curtis' suicide is soon followed by a lengthy scene depicting Shaun Ryder gleefully slaughtering hundreds of pigeons. And there's no way that a Joy Division fan can tolerate the way Tony Wilson always puts Ryder on the same level as Curtis when talking about music.
However, the film suggests that the Manchester scene wasn't really for visionary poets and unknowable suicides. Yes, they were stars; they inspired fans; they thrilled audiences. But the audiences could be just as thrilled by Ryder's off-key holler, or by anyone else, for that matter.
It would be unfair to say that the scene was about the money. In fact, Tony Wilson (at least, the way he is shown here) is hopelessly incompetent as a businessman. He is not a cynic. In a way, he really does believe in the music. But he believes in all music, or in the idea of music, without really paying attention to its content. Styles don't matter to him, he's just as happy with techno as with post-punk. He has a priceless line where he explains why he signed the middling band A Certain Ratio (he wanted a post-punk band that would be less unpredictable than Joy Division). He says, "They had all the talent and energy of Joy Division, but they looked better!" And this is why he actually makes the ideal protagonist for a film about rock music (and also why the Happy Mondays are featured so prominently in it).
Wilson is bursting with vivacity. He somehow combines his day job as a TV news reporter with managing a record label and making cameo appearances on other TV shows, while still finding the time to do copious amounts of drugs. He praises every musical performance that he sees, no matter how bad it is. The film shows that the Manchester scene (and, by extension, every rock music scene) was really for people like him: energetic, charming, youthful, out to watch cool shows, get laid and have a good time. Everyone is really out for the experience, not the music. And if you weren't sharp or outgoing enough to be there, well, I suppose then you can start listening to the albums.
Yes, Tony Wilson is a vacuous (but appealing) con man. Shaun Ryder lounges around doing drugs right in the studio, ignoring Martin Hannett's pleas to get to work, with seemingly little interest in his own music aside from the fame it provides. The lesson here is that rock and roll is for people who choose life over art, while still being able to make engaging, dilettantish speeches about art.
Despite all that, 24 Hour Party People still manages to do Joy Division a lot better than Control, Anton Corbijn's film about Joy Division. The musical performances, which subtly use actual footage of Joy Division concerts, are electrifying. The scene in which a group of skinheads starts a riot at a show (after Wilson's voice-over summarizes the social troubles of the day, with the deathless thunder of "Transmission" in the background), while Ian has an epileptic fit onstage, is aggressive and powerful. Those adjectives are not applicable to Corbijn's film.
The members of Joy Division are much more believable here than in Control. Ian is made to look more like an ordinary young man -- he's got youthful arrogance and ambition (his tirade against Bowie is great), but he's not Corbijn's Wordsworth-quoting gloom machine. His despair is more low-key, he is closer to the other band members (Bernard Sumner seems especially sympathetic). The scene in which Ian sings "Louie Louie" together with "the postman" and some other Factory guys pokes another hole in his black-marble romantic image, but it's kind of sweet. Yes, even the Joy Division guys liked to have a good time and were excited about their music. Sean Harris looks much better than Sam Riley in the role -- Harris' Ian is a skinny, introverted kid with a tightly drawn face, not a dream-boat with a chiseled chin and pouty lips -- and he also does a far better job of depicting Ian's theatrical intensity onstage.
The film is as tremendously energetic as its protagonist. It masterfully recreates the atmosphere of excitement surrounding the music, and fills out the more "informative" scenes with clever dialogue. The historical scenes are supplemented with actual footage from that time, which is spliced right in there with the actors. Tony Wilson gets his groove on at the famed Sex Pistols concert while the real Sex Pistols play in the background. A shot of Sean Harris seamlessly changes into archive footage of Ian Curtis; they look completely identical. The film even deliberately shows Harris in black and white, until it becomes impossible to tell him apart from Curtis.
The narrative style is unorthodox. The archive footage sits comfortably next to absurdist scenes of Bez encountering an obviously fake UFO, or Wilson breaking character to address the audience directly and list the real Manchester musicians who make cameo appearances in the film. This style of story-telling is so creative that perhaps we might consider this film to be, not just another pseudo-documentary, but rather the final great work to come out of Manchester's music scene. It was a fun party, if you were one of those invited.
DVD Review: a fascinating story made boring
Summary: 1 Stars
* pseudo-spoilers below *
Like others here, not only am I a big JD and NO fan, but also a fan of the clubbing scene and an a person who gets into the cool stuff like the Factory Records numbering system (even Tony Wilson's casket had one apparently).
This was a film about Tony Wilson more than anything, and was poorly done from even that point. I think the producers were trying to capture the angst and magic of the history of Factory and the Hacienda, but they missed it. Coogan is way too dry, the cinematography is not compelling, the storyline is incredibly random and jumpy. If you were not already familiar with some of the storylines you would be completely lost as to what was going on, and if you are familiar you would be disappointed. There are also way too many unnecessary scenes included- the pigeons, the UFOs, seeing God, hang-gliding, etc. which don't add anything and just make the film drag on.
It is a shame, cause it is great story, and some of the other characters have a lot more character (no pun intended), but don't get the chance to offer it to the viewer.
DVD Review: It might not be all true, but it is all entertaining
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, if you have any interest in the Manchester music scene starting in '76 and ending just before Oasis hit, you need to watch this movie. Second of all, if you want to know more of the real story, watch the movie with the commentary by Tony Wilson. He tells some of what "really" happened, although he tells it with a favorable bent towards himself. It is still one of my favorite all time movies, and because of it I can't listen to "Atmosphere" without bursting into tears, both for Ian and a friend of mine that used to cover it that recently passed away due to epilepsy. R.I.P. Ian and Derek.DVD Review: The Rise and Fall of the Manchester Music Scene.
Summary: 4 Stars
"I don't want to say too much, don't want to spoil it. I'll just say one word: 'Icarus.' If you get it, great. If you don't, that's fine too. But you should probably read more."--Tony Wilson, introducing the film 24 Hour Party People.
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 film about Manchester's Factory Records music scene between the years 1976 to 1997, featuring music by the phenomenal bands Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, and the Happy Mondays, among others. The film opens at a June 1976 Sex Pistols' gig at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall. Despite the fact that there were only 42 people at the concert, impresario/TV personality Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan) notes the concert was a great historical event, becoming the inspiration for those in attendance to "go out and perform wondrous deeds." After the Sex Pistols' show, Wilson starts Factory Records, signing Joy Division as its first act. Soon Joy Division has a hit record, but its success is cut short when lead singer Ian Curtis (played by Sean Harris) hangs himself on the eve of Joy Division's U.S. tour. The remaining members rename the band as New Order and record the hit song "Blue Monday." Factory Records then signs the Happy Mondays, sparking the rave culture. Meanwhile, Wilson discovers his wife Lindsay (Shirley Henderson) having sex in a toilet stall with the Buzzcocks' Howard Devoto. (In a cameo the real Devoto, says to the camera, "I definitely don't remember this happening.") The film documents the fascinating rise and fall of Manchester rock history, and features a superb soundtrack, including songs from the Sex Pistols, the Happy Mondays, Joy Division, New Order, Simply Red, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Iggy Pop, The Durutti Column, The Jam, the Buzzcocks, The Clash, and The Stranglers.
G. Merritt
DVD Review: "Let a thousand Mancunians bloom..."
Summary: 4 Stars
Just great, and a lot of fun. This is a thoroughly British film about the 1980's Manchester scene that captures the energy of the Hacienda club days. The movie doesn't beg American audiences to know a lot about the music, though it helps to know a few hits by Joy Division and Happy Mondays. Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson is a bit of perfect casting. The band portrayals -- Sean Harris as Ian Curtis, especially -- are very good, and the cameos are fun to spot (Howard Devoto is a standout). The movie is intelligent, funny and sarcastic; lots of music, lots of dialogue go by without apology or explanation, and the film comes off as a documentary although it's a carefully-staged fictional retelling of musical history. Fans of early British rave culture will enjoy it; casual American viewers may be confused at first, but the energy and humor eventually comes through.
Description of 24 Hour Party People
"Magnificent" (The New York Times), "amazing" (Los Angeles Times) and "a blast" (Rolling Stone), this true story of the raucous anti-establishment explosion that revolutionized the music industry is "miraculous one of the smartest, liveliest, most engaging and involving works you're likely to see this year" (Premiere)! Blown away by an unknown local band called the Sex Pistols, TV personality Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan) is inspired to invent a uniquely anarchic record label. Soon he's promoting everyone from New Order to Happy Mondays on his newly formed Factory Records and partying like a rock star. From Tony's speedy rise to Factory's hedonistic fall, this "wonderful party of a movie stamps on a smiley face that will stay with you for hours" (New York Post)!An ingenious docudrama on the Manchester music scene of the 1980s and '90s. 24 Hour Party People traces the rise and fall of bands like Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays--bands whose success in the U.S. was limited, but whose impact in Europe (and England in particular) was phenomenal. It all centers around the record label that spawned these bands, Factory Records, and its impresario Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), a man both ludicrous in his self-absorption and brilliant in his willingness to go out on a limb for bands he likes. Coogan, a British comic, gives a remarkable and deeply funny performance that manages to be simultaneously sincere and ironic. The movie communicates what was great about this time without any false majesty--the squalor and disasters are as crucial to this portrait as the wild successes. The soundtrack, of course, is superb. --Bret Fetzer
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