24 Hour Party People (2002)

Directed by

Michael Winterbottom

Genre

drama film, comedy film, biographical film, musical film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 52m

Rated

R

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 520 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This film follows the rise and fall of Factory Records in Manchester from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. It centers on Tony Wilson, a TV reporter who founded the label and managed bands like Joy Division and Happy Mondays. The movie mixes real events with invented stories and sometimes breaks the fourth wall.

energeticfast-pacedwrychaoticirreverentnostalgicself-awarebittersweet

What happens

24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British biographical comedy drama film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom. The film was entered into the 2002 Cannes Film Festival to positive reviews. It begins with the punk rock era of the late 1970s and moves through the 1980s into the rave and DJ culture and the "Madchester" scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The main character is Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan), a news reporter for Granada Television and the head of Factory Records. The narrative largely follows his career, while also covering the careers of the major Factory artists, especially Joy Division and New Order, A Certain Ratio, the Durutti Column and Happy Mondays. The film is a dramatisation based on a combination of real events, rumours, urban legends and the imaginings of the scriptwriter, as the film makes clear. In one scene, one-time Buzzcocks member Howard Devoto (played by Martin Hancock) is shown having sex with Wilson's first wife in the toilets of a club; the real Devoto, an extra in the scene, turns to the camera and says, "I definitely don't remember this happening". The fourth wall is frequently broken, with Wilson (who also acts as the narrator) frequently commenting on events directly to camera as they occur, at one point declaring that he is "being postmodern, before it's fashionable". The actors are often intercut with real contemporary concert footage, including the Sex Pistols' June and July 1976 gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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