24 Hour Party People

Finally got round to seeing it this evening, having missed it during the two weeks or so it was on at the multiplex. Had considered renting on video, but am very glad I didn't as the guy I generally rent films with would have hated it, in the same way he hated Human Traffic (i.e. it's British, and features music he doesn't like and people taking drugs). In a not-so-interesting coincidence, John Simm - the lead in Justin Kerrigan's 1999 masterwork - features as Bernard Summer in this movie.

Stylistically, the two films are worlds apart. Human Traffic is a highly polished, occasionally surreal look at club culture - 24 Hour Party People is shot (for the most part) like a documentary, and succeeds in making fly-on-the-wall hip again. It's too quick to dismiss it entirely as documentary, however, as a quirky sense of humour prevails throughout the more solemn moments. Steve Coogan's voiceovers are interspersed with Woody Allen-style remarks to camera - it may be breaking the fourth wall but at least you never forget that you're not supposed to take this too seriously.

Coogan is excellent as Factory Records founder Tony Wilson - I know too little of the Manchester history to say whether or not it's an accurate portrayal, but Wilson comes across as eminently dislikeable, too clever by half, and always good to watch: despite the numerous problems thrown at him he rarely loses his cool, at least on screen. Also terrific is Danny Cunningham, who brings appropriate anarchy to Shaun Ryder, and Sean Harris, whose portrayal of Joy Division's Ian Curtis is never more touching than in his final scenes.

It's easy to see how Wilson himself may have inspired Alan Partridge, which is why Coogan is so perfectly cast, and the spirals of success and failure are plotted clinically - perhaps a little too clinically, as by the end of the film you realise you don't really care what happens to the characters after the credits have rolled. Although as Wilson points out in one to-camera monologue, he is merely a minor character in a film about Manchester - and even if it's a little sterile sometimes that's hardly the point. Even if you weren't there (as I wasn't; I cut my teeth on Queen and Michael Jackson in the 80s and come 1990 was still watching Ninja Turtle cartoons) you realise that this was a part of musical history, and an important one - and to that end, 24 Hour Party People achieves its objective.

A highly amusing, earthy piece, with an excellent soundtrack (but you knew that already, right?). I enjoyed it tremendously. Even if I still can't work out what on earth Bez actually *did*.

(Thursday, 6th February 2003)