Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Steve Coogan, John Thompson, Nigel Pavaro, Lennie James, Shirley Henderson, Andy Serkis
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Classification: MA15+
Running Time: 115 Minutes

Hindsight is a mischievous mistress. It’s all too easy to look back on times past through rose tinted spectacles and construct fond, but oddly warped memories of events long gone. Periods of your life that seemed relatively ordinary at the time, metamorphosise into monstrous orgies of hedonism and debaucherous periods of thrills, pills and bellyaches. The ugly caterpillar of yawndom emerges from it’s cocoon of delusion transformed into the beautiful butterfly of ‘Ave it(!). The bad is jettisoned from memory leaving the good to take up residence like a squatter with a toolkit and a bag of planks. It’s all part of the mysterious interaction of time and human perception that allows us to hold close to our heart the life experience that has carried us to this point in time. No doubt, I’m as much a sucker for nostalgia as the next guy, up to a point. However, how anyone manages to look back at Manchester of the early nineties with anything approaching warmth is still beyond me. No wonder it was called Madchester.

24 Hour Party People is a story first and foremost about this much-maligned city. More specifically, this is a tale about Manchester that spans the late seventies through until the early nineties, covering what many would describe as a seminal period in the British musical landscape. It’s a timeline of two converging waves of musical energy, both heading in opposite directions. It’s the tale of punk, raw and ultimately destined to wane, and the burgeoning rave culture, embryonic and unpredictable. It’s a story from the eyes of a most unlikely hero, a minor news anchorman who loved music enough to start a record company, which started a club that spawned a movement. This is the tale of Factory Records and it’s part-wanker, part-genius founder (depending on who you speak to), Tony Wilson.

It’s hard to pigeonhole 24-Hour Party People. Shot in the documentary style, but most definitely playing it for laughs, we are informed from the very beginning (by Tony himself, no less) that not all of what we are about to see is the truth. “When you have to choose between truth and legend”, says Tony, “I say print the legend”, and the legend is what you get.

The legend is a record label that started following a Sex Pistols gig in Manchester (crowd attendance: 42) and proceeded to play a key role in promoting punk within Manchester and Britain. The key name early on is Joy Division, the band we all now know as New Order, and their enigmatic, late lead singer, Ian Curtis. Joy Division are Tony and Factory’s first band signing, or not, as the case may be. Factory Records is a rather idealistic and utopian label, choosing to dispense with the mechanics of actually signing contracts. Artistic freedom, and all that. The story winds along, telling it’s tragic tale until slowly our first wave begins it’s dive and the second begins it’s rise. Rave culture is beginning to grow within Manchester, non-manufactured and utterly raw, rising from the ashes of it’s predecessor. Our next chapter is all about a band called The Happy Monday’s and a club called The Hacienda. This is a tale of madness, debauchery and the question of how a company and club who were pivotal in promoting the scene we now know and love managed to make exactly fuck all out of it. As Shaun Ryder said (very slowly, nowadays), “This is a tale which had to be told”.

24-Hour Party People is nothing short of a phenomenal story and a fantastic movie for so many reasons. Michael Winterbottom’s decision to translate the tale to screen the way he has is a stroke of genius. This is not a mockumentary, but it is most clearly a comedy based on factual legend. At the core of it is a great yarn told by some incredibly likeable characters, flawed yet genuine in their intentions. Shot in a fly on the wall style, the movie keeps you engrossed, entertained and amused from the very moment of the first shot to the last frame. The focus of the film is excellent too. This is not simply another Human Traffic or Spinal Tap with a Manchester flavour. I was delighted to discover that this was not just a film about The Hacienda or about the birth of rave culture. The film covers much wider ground and is all the better for it. Watching the film, you are also aware of the amount of effort that has gone into getting the details right and telling the right story.

At the core of it all is Steve Coogan. Much criticism was leveled at him for the similarities between his performance as his comedy incarnation Alan Partridge and this performance as Wilson. Beyond the fact they are both somewhat bumbling and more than a little self-occupied, I don’t see the comparison holds much water. Coogan is the perfect comedy anchor for the events of the film to flow around him. Much like the real Tony Wilson, Coogan is at the core of it all but ultimately the direct catalyst for very little. Even over the course of two decades, Coogan ensures Wilson remains the same loved and heckled ‘wanker’ that the legend suggests he is. Without Coogan, this film would never have achieved the heights it has.

The supporting cast are also good, without blowing your socks off. Many have obviously been selecting for their likeness to their real-life counterparts rather than their acting ability – the portrayal of both Shaun Ryder and Ian Curtis could have been better – but generally they serve the film well. Keep your eyes open for the many cameos by the real-life characters that occur throughout the film too. It’s generally quite easy to spot them. They are the ones who look like they’ve had far too much.

I would strongly recommend 24 Hour Party People to anyone with even a passing interest in British music. I would recommend this to anyone with absolutely no interest in British music. In fact, I’d probably recommend this film to a blind narcoleptic without a DVD player or a TV. This is a fabulous film that is destined to become a cult film that rates up there with the best. I loved it. Buy it and you will not be disappointed.

Special Features: This two-disc set is crammed with more extras than a dealer’s pocket on a Saturday night. Amongst the treats in store we have two audio commentaries, the New Order music video “Here to Stay”, from the Factory Floor (basically a group of the real-life characters watching and commenting on the film), a Michael Winterbottom profile, a Shaun Ryder single, the Peter Saville Gallery, the Real Tony Wilson, Playing People Who are Still Alive (interviews with cast and crew), Genesis of 24 hour Party People and Interviews with the real-life characters.

The three audio commentaries aren’t bad at all, with Coogan and producer Andrew Eaton discussing the movie in a humourous way. The second commentary is from Tony Wilson himself, so make sure you have plenty of toilet paper handy. There are deleted scenes are must-sees as they are a bloody hilarious. From the Factory Floor is also entertaining, although a little drawn out. Peter Saville Gallery looks at the posters published by Factory whilst The Real Tony Wilson has the man being talked about by various people who worked with him and is also very entertaining. Just to finish this excellent package off there is a series of brief funny interviews with Factory band members and a reminder of why nobody should ever do as many drugs as Shaun Ryder or Bez.

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