The fall & rise of Anthony (Tony) H. Wilson & his part in Manchester's cultural uprisings.
It looked a lot of fun to make but I found it a bit too self-indulgent.
Steve Coogan does tend to be more like Alan Partridge than Wilson although there are some similarities.
The Joy Division bits seem a bit lame now, especially if you've watched the fantastic Control.
Great performances by Danny Cunningham as Shaun Ryder & Andy Serkis as Martin Hannett though.… Collapse

Great look at the early punk scene in Manchester. I do agree with some of the user critics that the first half of the film is kind of slow but that critique is probably due to it's psuedo-documentary style (I found it compelling enough as a teen viewer however). Halfway through the running time of the film is when things start to pick up and the punk transforms from new wave and into the early rave scene. Loving electronica and being born in 86' and missing out on the early scene it was a great 'ear' opener albeit knowing all the artists featured. Steve Coogan's performance is truly original, one of the best i've seen lately in modern cinema. Don't see this if you're just looking for a comedy; If you're a fan of music, and can appreciate some oddball humor you won't be disappointed.… Expand

Great Movie!

I saw this piece in the theater and fell asleep. Not only was this movie boring and unfunny to the extreme (what parts I actually heard), I could barely hear or understand the characters' mumbling dialog. Perhaps there were some funny bits to this film, but they were either mumbled or in the film's second half, during which I was sleeping. Also, the film was dingy. I was straining to see what was going on. I thought maybe the film and sound quality was due to the theater's reel, but a friend who saw it in another theater had the same gripes. But even with all the sound and lighting aggravations aside, the plot was largely uninteresting and boring. The cast of characters was virtually undistinguishable from one another and seemed to have no purpose. Unless you have a real interest in music scenes, don't bother seeing this. The critic and user score is pretty misleading, as well as the title.… Expand

This is a brilliant film. Steve Coogan gives one of the finest comedic performances in the cinema. You don't have to be obsessed with the type of bands featured in this film to truly get it. Is it possible for such a perfect film to fly under the radar and disappear into history without much buzz? MOST perfect films do this, until one point thirty or forty years in the future when they are suddenly "remembered." Don't miss your chance; check out this surprisingly brilliant movie!… Expand

Fantastic take on the Madchester scene! Steve Coogan is hilarious as Tony Wilson. I would have given it a 10 if it didn't try and cover so much in such short a time. The film skims too lightly over Ian Curtis & Joy Division, and I fear a casual fan or those unfamiliar with the history doesn't receive proper information.

The movie brilliant. don't get it? thats ok, but maybe you should read more.

This was supposed to funny? I never comment on movies but this one deserves something and it is not the accolades heaped upon by critics. I watched it for an hour, went to the bathroom and decided surfing 57 channels with nothing on was more entertaining than this dog. My dog is more entertaining. A total waste of money.

A sweet, funny glimpse of man, some great bands, a label and a club that rose, improbably, from grey, working class Manchester and became maybe the only genuine start-to-finish example of true Brit Punk ethos. Like an updated Camelot, with the King Arthur charachter replaced with Tony Wilson. Except without swords. Oh, and Tony Wilson's still alive and all.

Amazing performances and excellent direction make this one of the best films of the year. Any fan of New Wave and Electronic music can't miss this.

If you rate this movie less than an 8, you are : 1) Not very cinematically informed, 2) Not very musically informed, and 3) Dead.

Responding to Jason D.'s comment, as a casual fan of Joy Division, New Order, and the Sex Pistols, but with no other real interest in the Manchester scene, I enjoyed the movie as a movie, but it tails off pretty dramatically in its second hour. Steve Coogan is entertaining throughout, though.

Could have been a lot better. The movie covers such a broad sweep of the history of the Manchester scene, a decade-and-a-half, that it can hardly do it justice in only about 2 hours. It would take a trilogy to give the viewer a sense of the sweep of history the movie covers. Instead what we get is a snippet here and a snipet of there of the most important dates in the history of Factory Records and the Hacienda. Steve Coogan is very good as Tony Wilson, but I didn't care much for the dialog he was given. Foreshadowing in a movie is a useful and SUBTLE device filmakers can use to tip off the viewer as to what is going to happen later in the film. I didn't care much for stopping the film so Coogan can tell us what is going to happen to the various characters around him, or that a certain outake not included in the movie may end up on the DVD version. This is supposed to be amusing I guess, but I wanted to relive the history the movie deals with. Meanwhile, we end up not learning all that much about anybody around Tony Wilson. In this sense, 24 Hour Party People comes across as an in-joke that might be inaccessible to people who are not familiar with any of the bands or the Manchester scene at all. I can only mildly recommend it to people who are fans of any of the bands featured (or not featured) in the movie. … Expand