✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom · 2021
1h 50m
Director Nick Moran
Starring Ewen Bremner, Suki Waterhouse, Richard Jobson, Seána Kerslake
Genre Drama, Music
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The true story of the rise and fall of Creation Records and its founder, Alan McGee, the man responsible for supplying Britpop music to the 90s. From humble beginnings to Downing Street soirees, from dodging bailiffs to releasing multi-platinum albums, Creation had it all. Breakdowns, fights, and friendships... and not forgetting the music.
If it occasionally strains too hard to underline its “rebellious” credentials, with an expletive-laden script, quick cuts, archive pop clips and trippy visuals, the brassy, keep-up-if-you-can approach keeps the authentic cadence of Glasgow and, more generally, helps Moran mitigate the slightly stagey production values and sets.
Despite trying to be forcefully meta (McGee explicitly says he hates biopics), the platitude-plagued script and mostly mundane filmmaking underscore how ultimately unadventurous Creation Stories is.
A lairy, likable film.
Director Nick Moran gets the temperature of the era mostly right, and effectively weaves this extraordinary source material into a watchable if formulaic two hours.
Though entertaining, the funky flourishes offered in plotting, visuals, and voiceover ultimately become a superficial rebellion, draped over a disappointingly stale form. Basically, it’s like sticking safety pins on a t-shirt pre-torn at The Gap.
The Observer (UK) by Simran Hans
The frenetic pacing, intended to sweep the audience along, can’t draw attention away from Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh’s platitude-riddled script.
Bremner, perfectly cast and moving as well as funny, makes McGee an unrepentant showman who’s also an addict high on his own success. It’s refreshing, after the arduous self-pity of Rocketman, to watch a British music biopic which doesn’t wallow in finger-wagging regrets all day.
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