7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Beginning during the dawn of Factory Records--as Tony Wilson throws himself off a cliff for Granada TV--24 Hour Party People attempts to capture the essence of the ill-fated label which spawned Joy Division/New Order, The Happy Mondays and the venue that started modern Club Culture, the Hacienda in Manchester. Director Michael Winterbottom takes a very different approach to most music biographies, by making the film self-aware that it is a film and ironically looking at its own role within the history of the "Mad-chester" scene.
Starring: Steve Coogan, John Thomson (I), Lennie James, Shirley Henderson, Paddy ConsidineMusic | 100% |
Drama | 50% |
Biography | 24% |
Period | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The music industry seems to be kind of peculiarly set up to offer at least the hint of an “easy” entré to either artists or promoters who decide they’ve had enough of trying to pitch their wares elsewhere and who simply set up shop on their own. While his name may only ring bells for a certain niche in the general demographic, Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan) was just such a guy, a music lover who kind of became entranced with some of the acts he was listening to during the punk era, many of whom he featured on a television program he hosted in Manchester, England, and who went on to found Factory Records, which had a relatively short but storied history, and which introduced countless fans to such bands as New Order and its predecessor Joy Division.
24 Hour Party People is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Marquee Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p
transfer in 1.85:1. I wish I had better news about the visual component here, since the film is so genuinely engaging a lot of the time, but
unfortunately 24 Hour Party People was shot with a Sony DSR-PD150, and the "DVCam" source simply does not translate to high definition
very well at all. As can be easily gleaned from many of the screenshots accompanying this review, upscaling anomalies are more than prevalent, with
rather ubiquitous stair stepping accruing to virtually any edge or rounded corner in evidence. Just parse through the screenshots to get an idea of what
is in store, and pay special attention to body parts like ears or shoulders, though the "ridges" and "ripples" on display are not necessarily limited to
them. The entire presentation is often pretty soft and indistinct looking, and while this is offered in a progressive format, my hunch is some of the
quasi-interlacing artifacts and combing issues that are seen are "baked in" to the minicam source material. There does appear to have been
actual film utilized for some sequences, notably some of the location work, and unfortunately those moments are often plagued by very chunky, even
noisy, looking grain that is frequently splotchy and which actually tends to mask the image (I've also uploaded several screenshots from those moments
so that those interested can get some idea of what they look like). Some brief archival video snippets of some big bands like the Sex Pistols are utilized
as interstitials on occasion, and some of these moments have built in age related wear and tear, including quite a few prominent scratches.
Note: There's kind of weirdly about 25 seconds of black screen and no sound after you hit the Play button before the United Artists logo
starts.
24 Hour Party People features nice sounding tracks in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0. The surround track offers nice support for the often pretty bombastic music that is utilized pretty consistently throughout the story (both as on screen performances and as underscore). Some of the big drug fueled party scenes also resonate very well in the surround offering, with clear engagement of the side and rear channels. The stereo track is surprisingly strong as well, though, and it tends to push dialogue a bit more forward in the mix at times. Fidelity is fine on both tracks, and I noticed no issues with regard to damage, dropouts or distortion.
- 1. Happy Mondays Fight 480i; 1:00
- 2. A Game of Pool (480i; 1:50)
- 3. Lost in the Car (480i; 1:29)
- 4. Taking Drugs (480i; 1:33)
- 5. "About to Flower" (480i; 00:49)
- 6. "Blue Monday" Alternate Take (480i; 1:24)
- 7. Wheel of Fortune (480i; 00:23)
- 8. Supporting a Useless Football Team (480i; 1:36)
- 9. Chasing City Fans (480i; 2:16)
- 10. Special Tea (480i; 2:32)
- 11. The Hacienda Factor (480i; 00:33)
24 Hour Party People is often very funny, and Coogan is an absolute force of nature as Tony Wilson. Fans who loved Factory Records may already know there's a rather interesting film called Control from 2007 that focuses on Joy Division and Ian Curtis and which covers at least some of the same ground as this film, albeit from a more resolutely dramatic standpoint (there doesn't appear to be a domestic Blu-ray release of Control, though Svet gave high marks to the British Blu-ray from Momentum), and for those wanting a kind of wacky double feature, I'd personally recommend combining Control with 24 Hour Party People to get two completely different perspectives about what is ostensibly the same story (shades of Rashomon, some may be thinking). Unfortunately the video element here simply can't overcome the limitations of its source, and so I highly recommend that those with an interest in this title carefully look through the screenshots to get some idea of what this looks like. Audio is great, however, and some of the supplementary material, notably the commentaries, very enjoyable, for those who are considering a purchase.
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