Factory Records, the Hacienda club, Tony Wilson, Happy Mondays, etc, etc. '24 Hour Party People' is an affectionate and humorous trip through Manchester's monster music scene in the 80s and 90s. The soundtrack as you'd expect is blinding and Steve Coogan's portrayal of Wilson is spooky. A film that stands on it's own as an excellent near tragi-comedy, but within its historical context... it's bloody mad!

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Based on Crowe's own adventures as a teenage music journalist, Almost Famous tells the story of a 15-year-old boy who is complacently hired by Rolling Stone magazine to write an article on the fictional band Stillwater. As the band hits the road so does Rolling Stone's youngest reporter. find out more...

Eight-year-old Zachary has, so far, enjoyed life as his father's favourite son, as the possessor of a gift for healing and as younger sibling to a tearaway, a jock and a bookworm, but this relatively idyllic childhood in Québec is cast under the shadow of his dad's suspicions when he is discovered wearing a dress. Seven years on it's 1975 and Zac is in thrall to Ziggy Stardust and his cousin's boyfriend, a confusing situation for him, made more complicated by a history of trying to satisfy his d find out more...

Former pro-skater Stacy Peralta wrote and directed this gem of a film about the birth of vert skating that took place in LA in the 70s. Showing the evolution of skateboarding from the traditional flatland style to the surf-inspired vert style which utilized empty swimming pools and mass amounts of courage. Dogtown is a real ode of love to skating and the intensity of which will even appeal to those not obsessed with the skate scene. Actual footage and retrospective interviews with the original find out more...

An intriguing premise; take Dylan's music as an inspiration and using six different actors (one a young black boy, another a woman) loosely re-enact his life from childhood to venerable and venerated troubadour of the 20th Century. The possibilities of ‘I'm Not There' going horribly wrong were always going to be high but Todd Haynes manages to pull off a fascinating, hypnotic, original tale of a living icon and while the performances, with out exception, are excellent, it is Kate Blanchett's tur find out more...

Self-confessed in-it-for-life metaller Sam Dunn is narrator and guide in this erudite documentary about that most misunderstood and derided of musical genres, heavy metal. Dunn is an anthropologist and, as such, intends to challenge outsiders' perceptions about the clichés of satanism, spots and sexual confusion with an investigation of the realities inside the metal scene and its many sub-genres. Along the way he speaks to metallers of note Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maid find out more...

Bernie Lootz is one of the best coolers in the casino business and his boss, Vegas mobster Shelly Kaplow, knows it. Bernie's method of halting a punters lucky streak? All he has to do is get near them, because the secret to Bernie's success is that he's a loser of gargantuan proportions, everything he touches turns rotten, that is until he meets Natalie, a waitress that works in Kaplow's casino. Bernie is in love, but with this new found wellbeing Bernie's effectiveness as a cooler plummets, a p find out more...

An artful documentary about the life of Daniel Johnson, singer/songwriter, artist, cartoonist and general artistic genius, but a man sadly afflicted with a severe mental illness that makes him totally self-delusional and an occasional danger to both himself and others. Daniel, raised in a Christian fundamentalist family in deepest West Virginia, amongst many of his fantasies, sees Devils everywhere, and with his overblown self-importance, not helped by his legions of admirers, vying with his low find out more...

The Filth and the Fury is the last in a long line of documentaries on the Sex Pistols and is the best. Bromley's finest are shown in a sympathetic light whilst their infamous manager Mr Maclaren is shown up to be the cad he really was. During their regretablely short, but prehaps inevitably so, 26 month career the Pistols became the ultimate in media scapegoats whilst rising to near god like status amongst their hordes of fans. This film is a must for fans as well as the new generation who have find out more...

In a masterly film Ang Lee turns his sharp, compassionate eye on affluent ex-urban New England during Thanksgiving 1973. As the Watergate scandal escalates Nixon's bad faith is echoed in the life of an adulterous Wall Street analyst, Kevin Kline, whose children are in revolt and whose wife is shouting for help. An extraordinary tale of sexual jealousy, of children acting like adults and of adults like children, leading up to the tragic night of the Icestorm, the worst weather to hit the area for find out more...