Featured Audience Ratings

• Reid V

  
  While I have yet to check out his entire canon, Michael Winterbottom continues to impress me time and time again. Oddly enough, even though I am never floored by any of his films, I always get excited when I see his name attached to one. I think it is because every time I sit down… More
  While I have yet to check out his entire canon, Michael Winterbottom continues to impress me time and time again. Oddly enough, even though I am never floored by any of his films, I always get excited when I see his name attached to one. I think it is because every time I sit down with one of his movies, I am given a completely unique experience. 24 Hour Party People is no exception & in many ways may be one of his most delightfully bizarre outings. In 24 Hour Party People, Winterbottom takes the viewer into the heart of the Manchester music scene of the late 80s. Not only that, but he does so through the eyes of the bumbling egomaniacal proprietor of Factory Records Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan). It feels like the film equivalent of a Vonnegut novel. The fourth wall is constantly broken & the story is built around sizable chunks of truth, bits of legend, sci-fi, rumors, and just flat out lies. Coogan's performance is terrific. Nailing the comedic bits but also infusing the role with a near psychopathic narcissism that is an absolute treat to watch. He character is always equipped with an amazing retort. After being chastised for getting tickets printed too late and therefore not being able to sell them all in time for an upcoming event, Coogan dryly but convincingly replies, "They didn't sell tickets to the Sermon on the Mount. People just turned up because they knew it was a good gig." In my opinion, Coogan and Winterbottom can do no wrong. Especially when they work together. Don't believe me? Then check out Exhibit A: 24 Hour Party People.

• Cassandra M

  
  24 Hour Party People is the story of Factory Records, a defiantly eccentric independent record label based in Manchester, England, which discovered acts as influential and diverse as Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. The film is shot in mock-documentary style and narrated by Tony… More
  24 Hour Party People is the story of Factory Records, a defiantly eccentric independent record label based in Manchester, England, which discovered acts as influential and diverse as Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. The film is shot in mock-documentary style and narrated by Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), the founder of Factory. Coogan portrays Wilson's double life as music svengali and cheesy local TV reporter to brilliant comic effect. Although Brits will draw the inevitable parallels between Coogan's Wilson and his ultra-naff TV persona, Alan Partridge, Coogan actually has Wilson off to a tee. Arrogant and pompous, Cambridge-educated Wilson is master of the pseudish sound bite (when he realises they have no tickets for a concert in his nightclub, he retorts `Did they have tickets for the Sermon on the Mount? Of course they didn't, people just turned up because they knew it would be a great gig'). But he also has a perceptive eye for the zeitgeist and his vision to create the Hacienda club transformed Manchester into Madchester, for a brief time the music capital of the world. The story really starts with an early Sex Pistols gig in Manchester, attended by only 42 people, most of whom went on to have an influence on the Manchester music scene of the next 10 years. Wilson was in the audience, together with members of the band who went on to form the brilliant post-punk pioneers Joy Division. The first part of the film is really focussed on them and their manager, the aggressive and cantankerous Rob Gretton ( played by Paddy Considine), and their producer, the irascible acid-casualty Martin Hannett (another superb cameo by Andy Serkis) - both of whom are no longer alive. Joy Division's lead singer, Ian Curtis, is portrayed so accurately by Sean Harris that it's positively eerie, and the scenes of the band playing in rundown venues seem remarkably true to life and capture effectively the rawness and intensity of their live performances. The film also deals, rather insensitively, with the death of Curtis, who's feet we see swinging after he has strung himself up on a rope in his house. This segues uncomfortably into a town crier announcing his death to the world, and ends with scenes showing Curtis's body in a coffin at the crematorium. From then on, the story continues with Joy Division's reincarnation as New Order and the building of the Hacienda nightclub, and the sometimes disastrous business decisions made by Wilson and Factory. When New Order released Blue Monday, the record sleeve was so expensive to produce they lost money on every copy sold. The single went on to become the biggest-selling 12' of all time, paradoxically crippling Factory in the process. The first nights at the Hacienda were also calamitous, with bands playing in front of single-figure audiences. Eventually however, the druggy indie dance kings Happy Mondays arrived on the scene, and acid house was born. Suddenly the Hacienda was the place to be and the Madchester rave scene became famous all over the world. The scenes of drugs-and-sex-excess on the Monday's tour bus and the re-creation of the Hacienda club nights are superbly portrayed. The final part of the film tells how gang violence led to the closure of the club and the drug-riddled misadventures of the Mondays, especially their singer Shaun Ryder, led to their downfall and had severe financial implications for Factory Records (Wilson had inexplicably sent them to Barbados to record their last Factory album). Eventually, Factory was sold, lock, stock and barrel, to another label (who were perturbed to find Wilson had not signed any contracts with any of the Factory bands, effectively giving the artists total creative freedom). 24 Hour Party People is a real rollercoaster ride. There are some brilliant acting performances, punctuated by cameos from real members of the Manchester music scene (such as Howard Devoto and Mark E. Smith). The merging of legend and reality may make it difficult for people unfamiliar with events to work out what actually happened. But this is no accurate, austere documentary, but a touching, sometimes surreal, and often very, very funny, anarchic portrayal of a time and a place and it's music. Oh, and of course, the soundtrack is fantastic.

• Daniel P

  
  Brilliant film. Sharp and clever, lively and irreverent, Steve Coogan's break-out film portrays the Madchester scene, very specifically 1976-1992, when a new music was freeing the city and the nation around it. Watching this, it was so authentic I was sure that it was older.… More
  Brilliant film. Sharp and clever, lively and irreverent, Steve Coogan's break-out film portrays the Madchester scene, very specifically 1976-1992, when a new music was freeing the city and the nation around it. Watching this, it was so authentic I was sure that it was older. There's a special feature on the DVD where one of the actors talks about various films being "[city name]: The Movie" (e.g. Trainspotting = Edinburgh: The Movie). This is Manchester. But on top of its ability to capture a moment, we have a love letter to New Wave music and a biopic that's definitely outside the box. In the narrator's words, "I'm a minor character in my own story." Creative, fun and dramatic movie, perhaps one of the most relevant in recent British film history.

• Steven C

  
  Michael Winterbottom is always doing something interesting with his films- even though most of the time it never works, his ambition is remarkable. With his metafilm, "24 Hour Party People", he delves into the history of new wave 80s punk in Manchester England. While the… More
  Michael Winterbottom is always doing something interesting with his films- even though most of the time it never works, his ambition is remarkable. With his metafilm, "24 Hour Party People", he delves into the history of new wave 80s punk in Manchester England. While the film is visually inventive and colorful and the performances are vibrant, he never goes deep enough into the places that would really flesh out the story.

• MisterYoda ?

  
  If you are nostalgic for the British post-punk rock scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s and want to learn more about bands like Joy Division, Happy Mondays, and New Order, Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People is your ticket. Shot on digital video, Party People is a… More
  If you are nostalgic for the British post-punk rock scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s and want to learn more about bands like Joy Division, Happy Mondays, and New Order, Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People is your ticket. Shot on digital video, Party People is a wild and often dizzying ride that has passion and energy, great music, and playful humor (along with the obligatory "f" words, drugs, and sex). The soundtrack features bands such as the Sex Pistols, Joy Division, the Clash, New Order, and A Certain Ration, music that keeps the energy popping from start to finish. Part documentary and part fiction, the film is narrated by impresario Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan) who was the driving force behind Factory Records, an indie label that played an important role in the spread of the new wave sound, overseeing early works of such bands as Big in Japan, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Cabaret Voltaire. The film is not a comprehensive look at the total Manchester scene that included such great bands as The Charlatans, Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, and The Smiths but concentrates solely on the impact of Wilson and Factory Records. It follows Wilson as he goes from promoting Friday night sessions at the Factory Club to opening the birthplace of rave, the famous Hacienda Dance Club, while keeping his day job as a TV reporter and host for a local TV station in Manchester. After a hilarious opening sequence showing journalist Wilson hang gliding, the film turns to a Sex Pistols concert in 1976 where actual footage of the Pistols is interspersed with actors performing the songs. Although only 40 people attended, Wilson had a vision of what was possible and the small number in attendance didn't faze him, "How many people", he asks, "were at the Last Supper"? Wilson persuades his station to televise a Sex Pistols performance, an event that led to Wilson being asked to manage several of Manchester's rock groups. We soon meet Ian Curtis (Sean Harris), lead singer for the band Joy Division, his producer Martin Hannett (Andy Serkis) and Happy Monday's singer Shaun Ryder (Danny Cunningham), bands that helped put Factory Records on the map. Harris conveys Curtis' electric energy and manic stage personality while performing great Joy Division songs such as "Love Will Tear us Apart" and "Atmosphere". Unable to come to terms with growing fame and faced with crippling epileptic seizures and an impending divorce, Curtis committed suicide on May 18, 1980 at age 23, a sad end for a consummate artist whose personal agony translated into music of sublime melancholy. Wilson is often exasperating, throwing around words like semiotics and postmodernism, but his good-natured humor asserts itself as when he talks directly to the camera saying "you won't see this scene now but it might turn up on the DVD outtakes". In spite of all the absurdity, Wilson comes across as a man of integrity who was offered a large sum of money for his empire but refused, explaining to the audience that he "avoided selling out by never acquiring anything worth selling". Personally, I would have liked to have less laughs and a bit more information about these musicians, what kept them going or, as in the case of Curtis, what drove them to an early death. 24 Hour Party People, however, is not an in-depth character study but a fast-paced, offbeat paean to rock 'n' roll history, the people who made it, and the music we still remember.

• Wahida K

  
  The unbelievably true story of one man, one movement, the music and madness that was Manchester.

• Carlos M

  
  As Tony Wilson (Coogan) states in this refreshing film, it is not a story about him, it is about the music - Manchester's music and those who have brought it alive.

• Anthony L

  
  An interesting film based on Madchester in the early 90?s. Fact and fiction go hand in hand but the visualization of some of the industry?s best and funniest rumours make it worthwhile viewing. The suicide scene was also handled very tastefully.

• Lanning :

  
  I've been cogitating on this little gem for a while, not quite sure how best to say what I want to say about it. If you surf reviews and comments about it, you'll notice that the word "comedy" crops up quite a bit. Granted, there are many very funny moments in… More
  I've been cogitating on this little gem for a while, not quite sure how best to say what I want to say about it. If you surf reviews and comments about it, you'll notice that the word "comedy" crops up quite a bit. Granted, there are many very funny moments in the film, but overall, I'd have to place this in the tragedy camp. <p> First and foremost, the story of the protagonist, Tony Wilson, played brilliantly by Steve Coogan, and the whole blazing birth and soaring decline of the punk rock movement, follows the arc of classic tragedy. Wilson begins as a Manchester TV personality, fosters the Punk Rock era, enjoying incredible wealth and fame, and then ends as he began, the Manchester TV personality. Along the way there is excess -- drinking, drugs, sex -- and we are left with a man a bit more drug infused and enthused than he appears to have been at the start. The very last line of the film is a comment on the great quality of the marijuana being smoked. Coogan, in one of many meta-moments sprinkled throughout, lays it out for us near the very beginning: It's the flight of Icarus. An archetypal tragic trajectory, both figuratively and literally. As Coogan says, need he say more. <p> Trust me, I am no puritan, and I've lived my share of 24-hour partying. But there is a difference in the kind of indulgence level exhibited by many of the characters here. Either it is recreational and you walk away from it as you choose, or it becomes an ingrained lifestyle that lends itself, as it does here, to deaths along the way. <p> And therein lies the tragedy. Forget just the punk rock scene. Think of the music you love most. Whatever it may be. Or just think of movie stars. How many of these talented people must we lose to drugs? Will it ever end? Probably not. And there goes another Jimi Hendrix, another Janis Joplin, or another River Phoenix. Why? <p> For me, this story is one that is told too often time and again. It's a neverending tragedy that can't seem to be stopped. Either a drug-related or at least a drug-complicated death juggernaut. <p> All this being said, there are great moments of comedy, as mentioned, most happily generated as Wilson's Cambridge educational background gives rise to clever comments about classic literature and philosophy coming up against a seemingly much less educated real world around him. Maybe we all should, as Wilson/Coogan quips, read more : )

• paul s

  
  I had high hopes for an in depth look into the beginnings of the punk scene, but was left feeling disappointed, as though Winterbottom (dir) fell into the pathos of the punk movement himself and ended up selling his film short (as one of the films' high points - a fake Robinson… More
  I had high hopes for an in depth look into the beginnings of the punk scene, but was left feeling disappointed, as though Winterbottom (dir) fell into the pathos of the punk movement himself and ended up selling his film short (as one of the films' high points - a fake Robinson Caruso take of the writer and singer who is stuck on a island to "dry out" says so pointedly "I'm stuck here bored out me skull. guess I should write some lyrics, but then again, why should I?" I found the film's humour to be it's saving grace and the main charactor's humanity the only charactor I cared about at all - the rest were just degenerate slackers who to me had little real talent and were propped up by a hype machine - I guess as a dance vehicle (I remember the pogo) the songs work, and all the angst must have connected to someone - but I would sure have loved to have been given the opportunity to be recorded and pushed the way those bands were - and they could have cared less - which again I suppose is the crux of the entire movement. I noticed the lead actor from the BBC version of Life On Mars in a minor role as guitarist for one of the bands.

• Robert C

  
  It's funny...even if you are like me and your teen / early adult life was immersed in much of the music of this period and over the years you've heard about 'Factory Records" and 'The Hacienda'...you can't really appreciate ANY of it until you see a… More
  It's funny...even if you are like me and your teen / early adult life was immersed in much of the music of this period and over the years you've heard about 'Factory Records" and 'The Hacienda'...you can't really appreciate ANY of it until you see a film like this and get a true feeling for everything and everyone that was involved. Some say Tony Wilson was a fool...while others say he was brilliant. I tend to think he was a little of both (aren't most geniuses?). The thing that CAN NOT be denied is Tony Wilson's innovative and vital role, not only in the "Manchester Music Scene" but in the music industry as a whole. I can not help but think of how amazing the music industry might have become, if his "vision" had not been tainted by the harsh reality of human nature. Now-a-days it takes an artist "breaking free" and doing it ALL themselves (see NIN, Radiohead) to have true creative freedom. Tony was offering that years ago at Factory Records, but ironically it was one of his "artists" (and bad money management in general) that ultimately ended it all. But his "vision" was pure and his passion for music was genuine. A truely great story about a really amazing man.

• Christopher M

  
  24 Hour Party People is a really fun look at the booming Manchester music scene of the late 70s and 80s. Our guide and narrator is television presenter and record-company owner Tony Wilson (played by the awesome Steve Coogan), who in many ways greased the wheels for the music scene in… More
  24 Hour Party People is a really fun look at the booming Manchester music scene of the late 70s and 80s. Our guide and narrator is television presenter and record-company owner Tony Wilson (played by the awesome Steve Coogan), who in many ways greased the wheels for the music scene in Manchester to take off the way it did (producing for example, the legendary Joy Division). The film pretty much has a style all its own, taking us through the scene largely in a sort of faux-documentary fashion. There are some great, funny moments and some awesome characters (all coming from real-life people), such as Andy Serkis as loutish record producer Martin Hannett, and the awesome Paddy Considine as Joy Division manager, Rob Gretton. The work of Coogan and most of the other actors is also great. It's a fun movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, and this more than makes up for its (relatively few) faults. If you've any interest in the British music scene at all, check it out.

• Aaron N

  
  Tony Wilson: The smaller the attendance the bigger the history. There were 12 people at the last supper. Half a dozen at Kitty Hawk. Archimedes was on his own in the bath. This is a movie about the punk music scene in Manchester from the 1970s to the 1990s. It involves Tony Wilson, a… More
  Tony Wilson: The smaller the attendance the bigger the history. There were 12 people at the last supper. Half a dozen at Kitty Hawk. Archimedes was on his own in the bath. This is a movie about the punk music scene in Manchester from the 1970s to the 1990s. It involves Tony Wilson, a TV news reporter/record label producer, played brilliantly and hilariously by Steve Coogan. The movie is a dramatization based on a combination of real events, rumors, urban legends and the imaginations of the scriptwriter - as the movie makes clear. In one scene featuring Howard Devoto (played by Martin Hancock) having sex with Wilson's first wife, 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 of the movie) frequently commenting on events as they occur directly to camera, at one point declaring that he's "being postmodern, before it's fashionable". This movie is filled with all kinds of style in a very gritty way. It resembles the times in which the scenes take place, and is combined at many times with real footage depending on the setting, and a number of good musical performances that are both good to listen to and funny to watch at times. It also helps to no that a lot of scenes are improvised, giving it a more natural quality. Tony Wilson: This morning I was doing a story about an elephant being washed by a midget. Charles: He's a dwarf. Tony Wilson: It doesn't matter! Charles: Well, it matters to him. Its not all gags either, there are moments where the truth hits some of the characters hard, and things are handled in the appropriate way. Still, this movie is very funny, has a very neat look to it, and a great soundtrack. It is about real people, some you may have heard of, some you haven't, but regardless it hits many notes that work either because they are sadly true, very funny, or even satirical. Rob Gretton: You know your trouble, Tony? You don't know what you are. I fucking know what you are, but you don't know what you are. Tony Wilson: Well, my curiosity's got the better of me, Rob, tell me, what am I? Rob Gretton: You're a cunt. Tony Wilson: Well, you see I knew that, you see, that was something I did know.

• Lady D

  
  Wall to wall packed with British comedians and actors. It has the potential of being a great film, unfortunately I was bored in qutie a few parts and even Paddy Considine's part was very minimal. VERDICT: I can't seem to rate this as highly as most, but it's an ok… More
  Wall to wall packed with British comedians and actors. It has the potential of being a great film, unfortunately I was bored in qutie a few parts and even Paddy Considine's part was very minimal. VERDICT: I can't seem to rate this as highly as most, but it's an ok watchable film

• John B

  
  I looked forward to this movie given how into the music of the post punk period I was into and yet....I really like Michael Winterbottom as a director and yet....I really love Steve Coogan and yet.... This is clearly a movie that I didn't really get. Nothing spectacular or… More
  I looked forward to this movie given how into the music of the post punk period I was into and yet....I really like Michael Winterbottom as a director and yet....I really love Steve Coogan and yet.... This is clearly a movie that I didn't really get. Nothing spectacular or memorable other than the music.

• Eduardo C

  
  Tony Wilson was a martyr in love with martyrdom itself at least as much as with the cause that drove him to it. Taking himself painfully seriously, perhaps because no one else ever seemed to, he searched long and hard for his revolution until he found it in the now legendary "Sex… More
  Tony Wilson was a martyr in love with martyrdom itself at least as much as with the cause that drove him to it. Taking himself painfully seriously, perhaps because no one else ever seemed to, he searched long and hard for his revolution until he found it in the now legendary "Sex Pistols" concert in Manchester. Almost immediately punk gives birth to post-punk as bands like "Joy Division" (eventually giving way to "New Order"), "A Certain Ratio", "The Buzzcocks" and "Happy Mondays" rise to prominence under Tony's "Factory Records". That the rise (and fall) was mostly in his own mind is alluded to in the film. His record company, after all, went notoriously bankrupt a scant few years after its creation and it had never owned any of the songs it had released. What began with a bang quickly ended with a whimper as the "Madchester" music scene faded into the mainstream. <P> Was it truly a musical revolution? There is no denying the quality of the bands behind it or the fact that its effects (Manchester was one of the birthing grounds for goth and pretty much spawned rave culture singlehandedly) are still being felt today but it is not unheard of for once prosperous industrial cities fallen on hard times to produce unique and uniquely agressive music. I suppose the subject is irrelevant since it was a revolution in Tony Wilson's mind and he treated it as such. There is something touching and amusing in equal measure about this Cambridge scholar's desperate attempts to intelectualize and legitimize what he saw as the most important artistic current of his time. He refers to Shaun Ryder as the greatest poet since Yeats and, god bless him, he means it. He lost money on every single one of "New Order's" debut albums he sold due to the intricate and expensive packaging. When 20 people show up to the grand opening of his money pit of a club, The Hacienda, he cheerfully reminds everyone that there were only 12 people at the Last Supper. He was a fan first and foremost and a businessman least of all. For a little while the inmates truly did run the asylum in Manchester until it all came crumbling down. <P> The music is the film is exquisite, of course, and not entirely limited to Factory bands. "Siouxsie and the Banshees", "Iggy Pop" and "The Clash" all make appearances and others such as David Bowie and "The Smiths" are mentioned specifically and with a purpose. The film is nothing if not in love with music itself and amused by the behind the scenes process of creating it. It is far too short to serve as even a crash course in the Manchester scene, but it is certainly effective at condensing it into quite the experience. It certainly helps if one is already familiar with the events presented (which would render the death of Ian Curtis, for example, an already poignant scene even more poignant) but it is hardly required. The film stands firmly on its own, elevated by the strength of its direction (Michael Winterbottom can do no wrong), the music and the intoxcatingly unique persona of Mr. Tony Wilson.

• Doctor S

  
  Uses an 'American Splendor' style approach to blend biopic with reality. Well-acted (including Gollum's Andy Serkis as a foul-mouthed megalomaniacal producer) but covers a music scene that doesn't hold much interest for me (Joy Division, Happy Mondays.) However I… More
  Uses an 'American Splendor' style approach to blend biopic with reality. Well-acted (including Gollum's Andy Serkis as a foul-mouthed megalomaniacal producer) but covers a music scene that doesn't hold much interest for me (Joy Division, Happy Mondays.) However I did learn some pieces of rock history, and the emergence of rave culture gives me another reason to dislike Manchester beyond United.

• Emily B

  
  Long live the memory of Tony Wilson and the Hacienda.

Read all 18 featured audience ratings