Director: Michael Winterbottom
Screenplay: Frank Cottrell Boyce
Starring: Steve Coogan, Paddy Considine, Danny Cunningham, Shirley Henderson, Lennie James, Sean Harris, Andy Serkis, John Simm
Running Time: 117 minutes
Genre: Comedy, drama, music
Manchester, England, 1976: Tony Wilson (Coogan), reporter for local news show Granada Reports and music show So It Goes, is inspired, after seeing a Sex Pistols gig, to open a showcase for local, unsigned bands. Wilson's "Factory Nights" are a huge success, and he subsequently starts his own label, Factory Records. Despite making a huge splash with the legendary group Joy Division and, later, the brilliant, but mercurial, Happy Mondays, as well as their own nightclub, The Hacienda, Wilson and his friends soon realise that the wild nights can produce some devastating morning afters.
This is the cinematic equivalent of a great night out: Funny, wild, scrappy, sometimes weird, sometimes emotional, and leaving you blinking at the cold grey light of dawn. I was kind of too young for the whole "Madchester" of the late '80s and early '90s but I do remember it being a thing, and I knew people who were really into it, also my Dad is from Manchester, so I enjoyed the film's celebration of the city. The film is a heady mix of drama, documentary, comedy, music video and surrealism which doesn't as much break the fourth wall as throw a sledgehammer at it. In one scene one of the real people depicted in the film cameos to dispute the film's version of events. The film even breaks it's story to list some of the people who cameo in the film, including one whose scene was cut but, as the narration states, "I'm sure it'll be on the DVD" (I've seen the DVD and it is). The film is certainly messy (the tragic real life suicide of Ian Curtis, although played respectfully in the film, feels at odds with the goofy comedy surrounding it). Steve Coogan channels more than a little of his Alan Partridge character as Tony Wilson, a talented man who is so unapologetically and full-bloodedly a complete arse, that he becomes almost kind of heroic in a weird way. Otherwise, the film is full of famous, or soon to be famous British stars, including Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg. I love music, but I'm not really a big music person and don't know a lot about it, however I loved this film. It makes me feel a little nostalgic for the wild nights out and dazy, hazy mornings.
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