24 Hour Party People

Biography, Comedy, Drama, Music

Steve Coogan	Tony Wilson
John Simm	Bernard Sumner
John Thomson	Charles (Granada TV producer)
Nigel Pivaro	Actor at Granada
Lennie James	Alan Erasmus
Shirley Henderson	Lindsay Wilson
Martin Hancock	Howard DeVoto
Chris Coghill	Bez
Mark Windows	Johnny Rotten
Paddy Considine	Rob Gretton
Dave Gorman	John (the postman)
Ralf Little	Peter Hook
Andy Serkis	Martin Hannett
Danny Cunningham	Shaun Ryder
Paul Popplewell	Paul Ryder
Sean Harris

Director	Michael Winterbottom
Producer	Andrew Eaton
Writer	Frank Cottrell Boyce

An ingenious docudrama on the Manchester music scene of the 1980s and '90s. 24 Hour Party People traces the rise and fall of bands like Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays--bands whose success in the U.S. was limited, but whose impact in Europe (and England in particular) was phenomenal. It all centers around the record label that spawned these bands, Factory Records, and its impresario Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), a man both ludicrous in his self-absorption and brilliant in his willingness to go out on a limb for bands he likes. Coogan, a British comic, gives a remarkable and deeply funny performance that manages to be simultaneously sincere and ironic. The movie communicates what was great about this time without any false majesty--the squalor and disasters are as crucial to this portrait as the wild successes. The soundtrack, of course, is superb. --Bret Fetzer