Tony Wilson’s journey from the 70s to the 90s and Manchester as the epicentre of music.
Realistic and trippy as much as funny and dramatic. Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, director Michael Winterbottom and lead actor Steve Coogan (Tony Wilson) create something extraordinary. The life of a man who led the music industry in the UK, and more specifically in Manchester. The greatness of the phlegmatic British humour is what makes films like this work. Coogan delivers this deadpan performance that almost no one else can on that level. Next to him, Lennie James, Paddy Considine, John Simm, Andy Serkis, Peter Kay, Sean Harris, Simon Pegg and a lot more, offer plenty of laughs and unfold a surrealism that, for better or for worse, is actually reality-stranger-than-fiction kinda situation(s). Most of the things you see in the film are real-ish and are things that you’ll think to yourself, “you couldn’t make that up.”
That kind of humour is what characterises Britain and speaks volumes about the culture; the way people create situations, deal with situations, laugh, cry, celebrate, mourn, and, overall, deal with life’s quirks and foibles. Winterbottom and Coogan nail all these in 24 Hour Party People and offer an original spectacle that, alongside films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Human Traffic (1999), Snatch (2000), Mean Machine (2001) and more, characterise the transition from the 90s to the 00s for British Cinema.
24 Hour Party People is a chronicle of the key events that unfolded in the music industry in Manchester over two decades. It evokes a complex mix of emotions surrounding the artistic and business aspects, featuring outstanding performances and eye-opening situations.
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