24 Hour Party People
Other than the astounding Harry Smith psychedelic
title cards and credit sequences, Michael
Winterbourne's latest endeavor is rather flat and
tepid, to be blunt. This is nothing we haven't seen
before. Although, I must admit, I felt as though the
actors and Winterbourne himself took the entire
project a bit too seriously. There were moments of
total tongue-in-cheek postmodern (as the movie
constantly categorizes itself you'll see what I mean)
moments of self-reflexion in which the main character
(Tony Wilson, the man who found Joy Division which
later became New Order, almost signed The Smiths,
found and managed The Happy Mondays, and basically was
the man responsible for creating the entire rave scene
back in early 1980's Manchester) talks to the camera,
winking and smirking as if we're in on the joke when
really, at least I personally, was not. New Order's
great and all, I suppose, but c'mon art? Calling
those guys geniuses? I dunno Iggy Pop, David Bowie,
Brian Eno THESE are geniuses. Talking Heads, David
Byrne especially, yes. But The Happy Mondays? Uh, kind
fun I suppose, but maybe I haven't listened to them as
much as I should have.
One of the reasons I'm such a die-hard fan of "SLC
Punk!" (quite a similar movie) is because I knew that
the director, actors, and musicians involved were
aware of what they were doing in "24 Hour Party
People," it seems as though they're actually trying to
say something more than what they are they blur the
distinction between reality and documentary quite
poorly, never allowing the audience the knowledge
that, "Yeah, we know wink wink." It's always more of
a sugary Kevin Smith, "He he. Isn't this silly?" type
mode that really makes me think that Winterbourne was
just afraid of being sincere in his execution. Why
make it if you know it's not as great as you're saying
it is? Maybe I misunderstood.
The acting was so-so, the plot was somewhat convoluted
and all over the place, and I had no one to sympathize
with or empathize with (more importantly). No one
seemed to LEARN anything. No one seemed to care.
There's a moment of sudden and abrupt realization by
Tony Wilson at the very end whilst smoking some killer
weed, but blah. Blah. By that point, I was pushing my
way out of the theater.
Another one that you can miss unless you're a big
"Cure" fan, you fucking poseur!!
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