Review: 24 Hour Party People

Steve Coogan stars as Tony Wilson, a Granada TV presenter who went on to form Factory Records, and from 1976 to 1992 helped put British New Wave music on the map (Manchester, specifically), through bands such as Joy Division, the subsequent New Order, and the Happy Mondays, whilst not making all that much money himself out of it. It’s all about the bands and the music, you see. Wilson also co-owned a dance club called The Hacienda, which seemed to give birth to the rave movement/culture, but didn’t turn much profit because everyone was scoring Ecstasy instead of going to the bar for a drink. Before all that, though, Wilson (who is a bit of a selfish prick, as played by Coogan) would host a music TV show called “So It Goes”, for more discerning music lovers eager to see bands who don’t normally get mainstream media coverage. Paddy Considine plays Wilson’s chief business partner, Rob Brydon and Simon Pegg play journalists, Sean Harris plays troubled Joy Division front man Ian Curtis, and Andy Serkis is a hairy, temperamental sound engineer.

 

I love music (Rock, hard rock, heavy metal, and 70s R&B predominantly, the occasional bit of disco), and being born in 1980 and having a brother three years older, obviously I grew up enjoying a lot of 80s music. I still do, but I also love music from earlier than that period. But the British New Wave scene never was my bag really (nor the Punk movement that preceded it), so spending two hours with Michael Winterbottom (“9 Songs”, “The Killer Inside Me”, “The Trip”), Steve Coogan, and a bunch of bands I either don’t much like or haven’t heard of, didn’t sound like my cup of tea, really. Having seen the film, I actually rather enjoyed it.

 

Taken as a slice of life, a period of time in music from a particular place, it’s done in enjoyably irreverent fashion, and I wouldn’t call the Frank Cottrell Boyce (“The Railway Man”, the long-running UK soap “Coronation Street”) screenplay lacking in substance, just lacking in character depth. But since that’s not what it’s really aiming for, it doesn’t matter much, and never bores you. It gives you a feel for the time and place and the music, and that’s all it’s really trying to do. It’s certainly more convincing and substantial than the similar “CBGB” from 2013. In fact, the only issue I really have with the film is that the titles design at the beginning is almost entirely unreadable. Nice going, geniuses.

 

Is the irreverent approach (or post-modern, if you have your head up your arse) especially to my liking? Perhaps not, but I nonetheless applaud Winterbottom for having the guts to try something a little different, and it certainly plays to Steve Coogan’s strengths as an actor. The thing with Steve Coogan is that all of his characters are largely the same, and seem to be slightly different versions of himself. That’s fine, not all actors can or need to disappear into a role, so long as he keeps finding characters that allow him to give this kind of performance. It does make you wonder how much of an arsehole he is in real life, though. TV presenter and Factory Records owner Tony Wilson is certainly a good fit for Coogan. I’m not sure if he plays the role accurately (not knowing much about the guy), but his is nonetheless in his element as a very Alan Partridge-esque character. The film offers Coogan several to-camera bits that are rather cute, though they take some getting used to. He also gets one subtle but very strong dramatic moment reacting to a certain death ‘in the family’ so to speak.

 

Sean Harris is the other actor you’ll remember here, played the seriously troubled and sadly short-lived Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis. He doesn’t look much like Curtis, but sings rather well, and from watching Harris you can believe that this guy wasn’t long for this world, and wasn’t right in the head (In fact, in every film I’ve seen Harris in, he seems out of his freaking gourd). This guy has already checked out when we meet him, he clearly doesn’t want to live anymore. Andy Serkis (who later effectively played pre-Punk musician Ian Drury in the interesting “Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll”) doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time, but as the seriously crazy Martin Hannett, the unstable sound engineer he’s crazy fun. I do wish that Simon Pegg and the talented Rob Brydon were given more screen time here, but those are minor quibbles.

 

If you’re a fan of any of the bands depicted in the film, then this is a no-brainer (And if you hate Simply Red and Mick Hucknall, you’ll find at least two moments hilarious). But even if you’re not, it’s still an interesting and important film. If you don’t like music at all, well you probably need to seek help for that, but perhaps you’ll appreciate the rather irreverent approach Winterbottom takes to the material here. 

 

Rating: B-