The Null Device

24 Hour Party People

Well, tonight I saw 24 Hour Party People. It was quite good; perhaps a bit too cleverly self-referential for its own good in places (with all of "Tony Wilson"'s asides to the audience, for example, and the scene with the real Howard Devoto in the bathroom), though that's forgivable. Some good scenes there, though not as much Joy Division/New Order as I expected, and a bit too much focus on the Happy Mondays. Still, I'd recommend it to anyone who's into New Order or Joy Division, or who grew up listening to punk, new wave or Madchester baggycore. If that kind of thing means nothing to you, you probably won't get much out of this film though.

There are 2 comments on "24 Hour Party People":

Posted by: Ben http://rocknerd.org Sun Aug 11 08:45:26 2002

Not a great film, but quite enjoyable. I suspect that people without a near-obsessive interest in music would be bored rigid, though...

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Sun Aug 11 16:21:51 2002

Probably. A friend of mine in the UK saw it some months back and didn't get much out of it, because she was fairly new to New Order. Her companion, who was in a band, really liked it though.