24 Hour Party People (2002)

I love this movie so much

This is How Movies Should Be Made

How sad is this?

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Brilliant, innovative telling of the Madchester story.The story of the emergence of Manchester as a major musical centre in the late-1970s and 80s. The story is told through the eyes of Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan), Grenada TV presenter/journalist, owner of The Hacienda, a famed Manchester club, and founder of Factory Records. We see the where it all started - the Sex Pistols first gig in Manchester and the emergence of bands like the Buzzcocks and, most importantly, Joy Division. We see how New Order formed from Joy Division and later we meet the Happy Mondays... Wonderfully entertaining yet edifying. It helps if you're into bands like Joy Division and the Happy Mondays, as I am. Even if you're not, it is worth watching to gain a better knowledge of musical history and the importance of what took place in Manchester in the 80s.This movie could easily have degenerated into a dry, linear history lesson. However, director Michael Winterbottom keeps the audience engaging and entertained through many innovative methods: breaking the fourth wall, humour, Wilson's narration and some interesting visual effects.As you would expect, there is a lot of music in the movie, and it is all great. Well chosen and timed too, as the music gives the movie its momentum.Solid performance by Steve Coogan in the lead role. While mostly a dramatic role, there are quite a few comedic moments, and Coogan is in his element there. Good supporting cast too.

-contains spoilers-Tony Wilson is full of himself with his twisted recollection of the 80s and 90s and how this rave culture and genre of music came about.In this movie he claims that it came about through his collaborations with this new order of music he discovered called Punk Rock in the very late 70s. Also makes it appear that he alone helped to launch this genre of music to the public. That is totally untrue and either he is delusional or just lying to sell the story. Punk and this hard rock type of sound originated in the very early 70s with followers of bands like MC5, The Stooges, and others. The stuff that played at The Factory may have included punk-styled singers but most of the bands were just pop-rock garage bands.Later into the 80s and early 90s the bands Tony Wilson was incorporated with were just the same type of pop dance music you heard everywhere, but some with a slightly rougher sound some of the time. He says in the film that they were based on some new sound one of his producers had created but since the late 70s there were hundreds of bands similar to Happy Mondays, New Order, etc. Even American radio had been playing lighter versions of these bands like The Cure for almost a decade before.He claims that his club in the early 90s and these bands playing there accidentally stumbled onto this new form of music called "rave". That and his claim that they were the first club playing this "new" music and having live DJs is another total untruth. There were rave parties in Orlando and Miami every weekend, that I remember, from 88-98. This rave music and it's dance parties had been all over the world before his club even opened. And it was not based on pop-rock-dance bands but digital music intentionally designed for those taking hallucinogenics and other drugs, not just dancing. It is more likely that no one wanted to see the bands he was sponsoring so the club had to change and jump on the new dance party trend that was already sweeping the world.Though this is an entertaining movie and I would recommend it if you come across it on television. The fact that it is a type of documentary based on lies makes it's score plummet. Tony Wilson could have very easily just told things in a historically accurate way and the movie would mean much more.

The film makers achieved what they wanted!The music is fantastic as is the look, the acting and the casting. You really couldn't want more from a music film. The story covers a very important period in music and does so with a touch of genuine soul.The movie is funny and entertaining and as authentic as they could make it within the parameters of the story. Any criticism would be unwarranted. I honestly can't say anymore. I suggest you sit back and enjoy the ride. It obviously helps If you have some prior knowledge of the story and the music.Tony Wilson could be a pompous patronising c***, but was blessed with a wee stroke of genius and this film portrays this well.Good job all round.

It would be unfair to dismiss "24 Hour Party People" as a biographical look at Tony Wilson. It's so much more. It's a celebration of music, of a lifestyle, of a bygone era. It also plays like a Greek tragedy, albeit substantially more fun, but there is no shortage of darkness and tragedy in the film. The shifts in tone are particularly remarkable, as the film veers from its usual dry, sardonic tone into real pathos and examination of the dark side of almost any phenomenal success.I'm not completely nuts. I'm not going to claim that "24 Hour Party People" is a visual masterpiece, or a film which achieves more with its characters than most accepted 'masterpieces' of cinema when it comes to depth. I'm not going to argue that it feels as complete an artistic achievement as one of the better films by a cinematic 'master'. Wait, what am I talking about? That's exactly what I'm going to argue. "24 Hour Party People" is as perfect as a film can get, not because it achieves the visual perfection of one of Kubrick's finer films, not because it marks a turning point in cinema history, but because it sets out to be exactly what it ends up being- a hilarious, darkly satirical and yet affectionate look at one of the biggest 'scenes' in music history, some of the best bands, and the man behind it all, Tony Wilson. A minor player in his own life story. This is one of the most purely enjoyable films ever made. It all unfolds with a sort of inspired madness. The very first scene shows the charismatic, arrogant, and somewhat self-important Tony Wilson hang-gliding for a television report, then turning to the camera after that's over with and saying "You're going to see a lot more of that sort of thing in the film. 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." It's not only a terrific line, indicative of the sort of dry wit much of the dialogue achieves, but also telling of what the film is going to be like. J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader was one of the less infatuated major critics with the film (but still gave it a definitely positive review, which should give you some indication of just how well-received this film was by critics), and labeled Coogan's Wilson a a pedantic narrator, describing his story as having little narrative momentum of its own. I like to think that's sort of the point, and Wilson himself makes a point to mention in the film that it's not a film about him. The highlight of the film, arguably even more than Frank Cottrell Boyce's screenplay, is Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson. As everyone reading this probably knows, Coogan based his famed Alan Partridge character on Tony Wilson's career as a television reporter, so he's really playing a variation on Alan Partridge here. What's amazing about Coogan's performance is that he manages to draw even this Partridge fan into Tony Wilson's world so much that I didn't care about any similarity. It's still a stunning comic performance, and excellent during the darker, more serious scenes in the film as well. I'd go as far as saying that it's one of the best male performances of the decade. The rest of the cast is too large to go through one by one, but everyone is excellent here, some going for a sort of slightly altered impersonation of the real-life person they're playing, some creating their own version. A point of criticism often aimed at "24 Hour Party People" is inaccuracy. The film is gleefully inaccurate, and I fail to see how that's a problem. We didn't need a pedantic, touch-on-all-bases film about Factory Records, because Factory Records would never have made such a movie had they ventured into film production. This is exactly the sort of loose-knit and yet tightly-written film that is needed to capture the energy of the music and the movement. Boyce's screenplay goes through dozens of characters, none of which don't feel real, it's got enough pompous and arrogant philosophizing to turn off even the worst pseudo-intellectual, but it makes it work simply because it's got a sort of self-mocking sense of humor. The points Wilson makes by referencing history and philosophy are valid, but it would be at odds with the sort of film this is if they weren't written with the wry wit the rest of the film is, and if they weren't delivered so wonderfully by Coogan. The film is shot on video, and uses a hand-held style which far from inhibiting the film as it arguably does with some other Winterbottom films, just suits it perfectly. That doesn't mean there aren't some scenes which are explosively extravagant visually, because there are, and they are beautiful. "24 Hour Party People" feels like a complete artistic achievement. It captures the energy of the music, the feel of it, the basis for the movement so well, but also succeeds at providing a well-told summary of the story of Factory Records, the Hacienda, and Tony Wilson. As far as I'm concerned it's one of the most enjoyable films ever made, and one of the most consistently successful. I don't think there's anything here that falls flat, it's all quite brilliant, from the first scene to the final shot. 10/10