Twenty-Four Hour Party People (2002)
Wow. Who would have known 'Joy Division' (the band) was so good. The movie itself is good, a hybrid documentary, actual film. The first half is better partly because the actor playing Ian Curtis (lead singer) is brilliant as is the manner in which you are introduced to his character. You meet this guy who's just there in the club, and you're like, okay, 'who's this guy?' Whatever. Then later, when he suddenly jumps on stage and starts signing. It's awesome. I never saw the real Ian Curtis, but one has to wonder if anything could possibly be as riveting as this portrayal. The intensity of his passion is so well acted his singing becomes out of body. It's as if he is trying to get to the heart of something, which happens to be about six inches behind the microphone. And so his face hits the microphone like a good viscious linebacker plugs a hole and then drives through it, broken finger be damned. I don't know about you, but that's exactly what I want from my post-punk singers. None of this stupid head set wearing bullshit you get with Brittney Spears, Madonna and God save who else. The bottom line is 'Their suffering, my listening pleasure.' And I just don't think Brittney Spears is suffering quite enough. There's also a great scene of what it might have been like when 'The Sex Pistols' were starting out, packing in local schoolhouse auditoriums with crowds of up to thirty-eight people. The movie makes you wonder, 'If I were there, would I have been able to recognize the magic?' Probably not. Best let 'Rolling Stone' tell me 'uh oh, who's magic.' There's no shortage of real performance footage blended seemlessly into the film. The second half is basically like what if Spinal Tap were actually a vaguely-serious documentary or maybe Almost Famous with plenty of 'almost' but the kid stays out of the picture. It's interesting in a sort of Chronicle of a Downward Spiral Foretold way, but it lacks the magic of the first half (i.e. Joy Division). Essentially, what it boils down to is you see the movie, you go home and order the 'Joy Division' box set from Amazon as well as an Iggy Pop CD too because let's face it, saying you listen to Iggy Pop because it's on your Trainspotting Soundtrack is really not that cool. Look, nobody needs to know how you got it, but just make sure when the Lord comes down from Heaven, it's in there.