Oil City Confidential (2009)
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100% of critics liked it
(11 reviews) -
86% of users liked it
(220 ratings)
Outside of the United Kingdom, only the most obsessive music fans were aware of what was known as "Pub Rock" during its brief heyday in the early to mid-1970s. But in England, Pub Rock was a important precursor to the punk and new wave scene; the Pub bands rejected the growing pretension… More Outside of the United Kingdom, only the most obsessive music fans were aware of what was known as "Pub Rock" during its brief heyday in the early to mid-1970s. But in England, Pub Rock was a important precursor to the punk and new wave scene; the Pub bands rejected the growing pretension of glam and progressive rock, and instead embraced a back-to-basics sound rooted in stripped down R&B and country rock. The toughest of the Pub Rock bands was Dr. Feelgood, a quartet whose revved-up, no-frills music was more tuneful and celebratory than punk but communicated much of the same swagger and sense of menace. Dr. Feelgood -- Lee Brilleaux on vocals and harmonica, Wilko Johnson on guitar, Sparko (aka John B. Sparkes) on bass and The Big Figure (aka John Martin) on drums -- never earned more than a tiny cult following in the United States, but for a spell they were a major draw in the UK, and their wild rags to riches to rags again story is brought to the screen in Oil City Confidential, a documentary by Julian Temple that features extensive interviews with the surviving members of the band (Brilleaux died in 1994) and live footage of the group in their prime. Oil City Confidential received its world premiere at the 2009 BFI London Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Julien Temple
- Genres
- Musical & Performing Arts, Documentary
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Oct 20, 2009 Wide
- Studio
- A Product of Malitsky
Critic Reviews
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Tom Huddlestone, Time Out
What emerges is a film to rank alongside Temple's own Joe Strummer elegy 'The Future is Unwritten' as the very best in British rock documentary. Riveting, even if you don't like the music.
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Philip Wilding, Empire Magazine
Authentic feel to this good-looking biopic of the ill-fated band.
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, Times [UK]
Julien Temple's rockumentary Oil City Confidential looks like a series of Martin Parr photographs of the British by the seaside, and then segues into thrashing guitars on the Seventies New York stage.
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Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
I don't think [Julien Temple's] ever made a film as good, and purely insightful as this one.
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Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph
The splicing of old home videos, archive footage and new interviews is handled with real finesse, and in the band's mad-eyed, quixotic guitarist Wilco Johnson, the film has a tirelessly charismatic ringmaster.
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