24 hour party people
(2002, directed by michael winterbottom)
crooked
(2002, directed by skiz fernando):
films about events in moments in music history, real or imagined, are
usually not a good idea. I'm thinking of la bamba, eddie & the cruisers,
cotton candy, american hot wax, selena, etc.
I still haven't seen selena, actually, so perhaps that one is terrific.
certainly it was well-cast.
the rise and fall of manchester's factory label is chronicled in 24 hour
party people, and the best thing I can say about it is that there is no
pretense of the film being a historical document of any sort. culled from
the reminisces of label founder/teevee presenter tony wilson, 24hpp places
the blowhard wilson at the epicenter of everything important that happened
in '70s/'80s music in manchester. everything important, that is, if you
pretend the fall were a mere footnote and you excuse the fact that the happy
mondays sucked then, now, and forever. but enough of my own prejudices, this
is a funny movie because it is completely carried by steve coogan-as-tony
wilson. coogan, already adept at playing media creeps with no social skills
(his alan partridge character, immortalized in two bbc series, made larry
sanders look positively well-adjusted by comparison), is thoroughly
irritating, egomaniacal, and unsym-pathetic in equal doses. and he's the
only interesting character in the film.
numerous actors were rehearsed long and hard trying to mimic the stage
moves of ian curtis, peter hook, etc., but it's kinda like watching gary
cooper as lou gehrig. if you're old enough to remember lou gehrig (and I'm
not), you probably don't wanna see gary cooper (or jennifer lopez)
pretending to be him.
I think I went to the bathroom during the scene where the stones roses
and oasis were explained away as footnotes. which is just as well, I'm
totally ok with that.
a far more successful and entertaining story of an independent record
label can be found in crooked (wordsound, dvd), a no-budget endeavor not so
loosely based on the exploits of the brooklyn label's franchise act, the
perpetually out-to-lunch sensational (as well as the trials and tribulations
of label founder skiz fernando). the odd bit of wooden acting and
cheapo-production values cannot stop this diy hip-hop tour de force;
sensational wheels and deals his way though messy label negotiations with
evil record exec "brad lombardi", drug transactions gone wrong and worst of
all, a shop that looks an awful lot like ny's fat beats that refuses to
stock his records (on account of fucking with the store manager's head,
don't you hate it when that happens). inspiring, fun stuff, much of it
exaggerated, some of it not, fernando might never tap into the cultural
zeitgeist the way tony wilson did (though you could probably argue about it
for a few hours), but there's no denying his story oughta become every bit
as legendary. gerard cosloy
