Films That Really Matter To Us: 24 Hour Party People

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OK this isn’t one of those must see films unless you know who Tony Wilson, Joy Division, Happy Mondays and Factory Records are. 24 Hour Party People takes its title from the song of the same name and it’s a biography of Tony Wilson’s heyday years.

24 Hour Party People is presented in a really cool way – it’s not exactly a dramatisation, but it’s not a documentary either. If you are aware of who the real Tony Wilson was, you’ll appreciate Steve Coogan’s portrayal of him. It’s played as a documentary with moments when Coogan talks directly to the audience, but there are also some really effective film moments too. Ian Curtis’ suicide is one example of this.

Control - too narrow minded?

What I love about 24 Hour Party People is that it doesn’t just focus on the doomed career of Ian Curtis. So many tv shows and now a film – Control (2007) – have documented his tragically short life, ending with suicide at just 23. However, what these films, books and shows fail to address is the fact that Joy Division was not the end for the Manchester music scene, nor Tony Wilson and Factory Records. In fact, it wasn’t even the end for Joy Division themselves, who regrouped to form the very successful band, New Order. 24 Hour Party People goes way beyond this – it goes right up until the final night of the legendary Haçienda club in 1997.

Starting with the influential Sex Pistols gig in Manchester in 1976, 24 Hour Party People shows the crazy life that Tony Wilson led and includes all the bands we’ve heard of, and some of the ones we haven’t. It’s everything I could possibly want in a film – it’s about music: how it’s made, who is influences, how it changes over time and the cultures it creates. The film makes the music the centrepiece in Tony Wilson’s story, he lived it and breathed it and this is effectively conveyed.

Steve Coogan is amazing as Tony Wilson!

24 Hour Party People has the balls to exaggerate, but they normally tell you when this is (“I definitely don’t remember this happening”, says the real Howard Devoto as he is shown sleeping with Tony Wilson’s wife), but as Tony Wilson says, “when you have to choose between the truth and the legend, print the legend!"

I can’t really put into words how amazingly chaotic this film is, yet it makes perfect sense given that it’s about a record label that was so badly run that it hardly made any money and sold records that lost them money just because they looked nice (see Blue Monday – New Order). If you’re interested in music or pop culture, this film is a must see!