24 Hour Party People

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Extravagant and funny it is, and also quite dark at times.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

One of the sharpest and funniest movies about the music business ever made.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Shines with a kind of inspired madness.

San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel

Funny, riveting look at the music scene that ruled Manchester, England, from 1976 to 1992.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

"Print the legend," Mr. Wilson says at one point, both quoting John Ford and laying the foundation for his own often fact-free fabulous fabulism. And this movie is just that -- fabulous.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Like the music, the film is outspoken, roaringly funny, defiantly sexual and relentlessly in your face. I couldn't have liked it more.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

The film is a whirlwind blur, a kinetic thrill ride through the industrial backwater that was one of punk and post-punk's most fertile Promised Lands: Manchester.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Amazing, rich in authentic period atmosphere and detail, an ever-changing cyclorama of a movie.

LA Weekly Brendan Bernhard

The movie's a rave and a half.

Salon.com Jeff Stark

This dizzying saga of the '80s Manchester music scene is garish, reckless, endlessly self-indulgent and totally untrustworthy. What a blast!

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Loud, hilarious, and enormously entertaining, 24 Hour Party People makes you want to toss current FM radio out on its pre-fab, corporate-sponsored backside. And not a moment too soon.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue

So energized by the subject that it overflows with inventiveness.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Hopped-up and electrifying. The soundtrack is wall-to-wall and propulsive.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Just don't expect the truth. An extremely bent, highly amusing form of the truth, maybe, but not the truth. 24 Hour Party People shares with the current Robert Evans documentary ''The Kid Stays in the Picture'' an awareness that a good anecdote often trumps the facts, but here the cheats are cheekily laid bare.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

What makes this movie an up is that even when its characters are crying for help, they're also crying for Help!

New York Post Megan Lehmann

This wonderful party of a movie, as totally original as its hero, stamps on a smiley face that will linger for hours.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Wilson's account is enormously self-serving and self-aggrandizing, but the film makes his ego a virtue and a running joke.

Film Threat Tim Merrill

Simply a two-hour rave, an acidic, ecstatic trip through the not-too-distant past in a world called Manchester.

Washington Post David Segal

The film has a wry, postmodern verisimilitude.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

A funny, unexpectedly inspiring story of excess, poor choices, and unwavering high-mindedness, all tied to that quintessential bit of rock wisdom: Icarus did fall, but first he flew.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Also featured are countless cameos from local superstars ranging from the Fall's Mark E. Smith to Mani of the Stone Roses, making the film an absolute thrill for fans of the Manchester scene.

Miami Herald Evelyn McDonnell

A strange art-house film, a must-see for punks and nightclubbers, a puzzle for the merely curious.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Jam-packed mishmash of wall-to-wall music, trenchant character study, slick sociology and sly witty-Brit comedy.

Variety Derek Elley

A rough, gritty, often scabrously humorous tribute.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Coogan delivers a winning comic performance as the pompous impresario, but his story has little dramatic momentum of its own; he functions mostly as a pedantic narrator, imposing some cultural significance on the endless party and pointing out more intriguing personalities.

Washington Post Richard Harrington

The manic swirl of characters (most speaking in thick Northern accents that are sometimes muffled and incomprehensible) may leave you exhausted and confused.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

As a historical document, 24 Hour Party People may be most meaningful to fans whose epiphanies were experienced at least one remove away -- at a different place or time.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

At times, the self-congratulatory tone makes for smug viewing and slow going. In spots, the pace is so all-exclusive that not every viewer will be able to get up and dance to it.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

An insider nostalgia trip for graying art punks. It could have been called ''When We Were Cool,'' and it's finally so cool that it freezes you out.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Personally, I'd rather have my brain invaded by flesh-eating beetles than listen to 10 seconds of the Sex Pistols -- Truth is, I've rarely had a worse time watching a good movie.