Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Back in 1977 while punk was just getting going, a band called Ian Dury and the Blockheads released an album called 'New Boots and Panties'. A few years later, feeling a bit nostalgic, I bought said album really cheap. I still have it today; in fact I'm listening to it as I type this review. Now, onto the film, it's a biopic all about Ian Dury, his fight against disability and his rise to fame. Here's a brief summary before I tell you my thoughts (summary haters please mingle with the audience while I write the next paragraph).

Ian Dury was an entertainer, or that's what he always said he was interviewed. He had been struck down with polio when he was young and this left him withered down his left side. When we first see him, he is with another band who are rehearsing downstairs while his wife, Betty, gives birth upstairs. Later, after their last gig, he meets Denise Roudette, with whom he has an affair. They move in together and a while later, his son, Baxter, comes to stay with them. As Ian puts a new band together, including musician and songwriter Chaz Jankel, Baxter struggles to come to terms with the chaotic lifestyle he has been thrown into. The film plots his rise to fame and the effect it has on Ian and those around him. It also tells of his early life in flashback, his relationship with his father, Bill, and his unhappy childhood in an institution. I won't say any more as I don't want to give too much away.

Made in a very theatrical style, this film cuts from live action to animation, to live musical performances and back again. It all sounds a bit chaotic, but, for me at least, it works. At the centre is a really great performance from Andy Serkis as Ian Dury, although he doesn't particularly look like him, he has all his mannerisms down to a tee. I also thought Bill Milner played the part of Baxter Dury very well, it can't have been an easy part for a young actor and I thought he coped with it pretty well. Similarly, Wesley Nelson played the part of Young Ian Dury very well. I should also give honourable mentions to Olivia Williams as Ian's wife, Naomie Harris as Denise Roudette, Tom Hughes as Chaz Jankel, and nice cameos from both Ray Winstone as Bill Dury (Ian's dad) and Noel Clarke as Desmond.

Although Ian Dury wasn't the easiest person to get along with (for those that don't know, he passed away in 2000) and consequently not the nicest man in the world, I found this quite an enjoyable film to watch. I can't say I'm a huge fan of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, but I do recognise that Ian was a very talented chap and I always respected him as an artiste. Later in his career he appeared in quite a few films, not a bad actor. Over all, it's quite an interesting film, very touching at times but also quite bold in its approach. I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but still… recommended.

My score: 7.1/10

Ian Dury's span of popular success in the UK only lasted a few years and I can't say I was over-familiar with either his work (bar the early hit singles and albums) but this film belied my fear that perhaps there wasn't much of a story to tell. In fact, it probably over-compensates by adopting a non-linear narrative approach as well as some arty-farty jump-cuts and tricksy animation sequences to inject a knockabout feel to proceedings.

This is again a somewhat contrived and forced contrast to the bathetic scenes of Dury's growing up as a young boy, abandoned by his father, bullied at school by his class-mates and one particular teacher, his adult predilection for treating his womenfolk very badly indeed and finally the difficult relationship with his own son Baxter, who has since become a recognised musician in his own right.

I felt the scenes with the two women in his life, his wife and mistress were a bit overwrought and overwritten, their dialogue too forced and you're always anticipating an inspired pearl of wit or wisdom from Dury when real life just doesn't work that way, even with clever bastard word-smiths like him. It's like expecting Shakespeare to curse and moan in rhyming couplets if he was having an argument - my point is we know that Ian Dury had a way with words but not every minute of the day.

All that said, the film rattled along and certainly did the man's musical legacy proud. I thought a bit more could have been done to play up the importance of Chaz Jankel and his nifty tune-spinning - certainly Dury was a lot less successful when writing to someone else's melodies. Andy Serkus is great in the Dury role, he looks and talks the part very well, acts his disability imperceptibly and keeps up the characterisation right into the songs, of which many are aired.

For some reason the film misses out about the last 15 years of his life and we don't even get to know how he died, although the director may claim that the film was a celebration of his life and won't be the last bio-pic to fast forward past the more mundane parts of an artist's life. For that reason, the first half of the film as he struggles for success is better than the inevitable rock-star excess in the second half, where Dury's persona becomes a bit blurred.

All told though, I quite enjoyed it but regret somewhat that the director felt the need to jazz up his subject's life in a way that I'm not sure a no-bullshit guy like Dury would altogether appreciate.

In the states, Ian Dury is mostly unknown, especially now. He was a UK rocker who came out of the pub circuit. He was the most unlikely of rock stars, stricken with polio and possessed of a less than tuneful voice. Still, the music is well crafted and other than the film title some may remember the clever "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick". Andy Serkis does an amazing job as Dury, he catches his ugliness, his drive, his indifference and his fury. They don't make musicians like Dury anymore, and thats a pity. He was an original. The film gets a bit confusing jumping from the present to the past, but stay with it. If you've never heard of Dury, read up & listen before you watch this. Otherwise, I think this is a faithful film about a difficult person but one who contributed well to popular culture. R.I.P. Ian.

Blows the typical Hollywood bio-pics (RAY, WALK THE LINE, etc. etc.) right out of the water. A career-defining performance from Andy Serkis...his BAFTA nomination was more than well-deserved. He literally inhabits this physically and emotionally demanding role. The film does not sugar-coat the fact the Dury was a hard man to be around. Superbly edited as well, combining graphics, animation, varying film-stocks and angles, B&W, flashbacks, and fantasy sequences (ever see a band perform UNDER water?). While this might sound like a mish-mash, it certainly reflects those same artistic elements and chaos of the times. Yet the movie never loses it's narrative thru-line. A must-see, even more so for those who remember.

The Ian Dury story was definitely too strange for fiction. A disabled pop star - in the modern video age - who created a mix of musical hall, punk and pub rock that topped Euro charts and still gets a whirl now and then on nostalgia radio.

But is this is the real story? For a start he had one of the great backing bands (and to be frank they were more musical than him!) and, besides that, he was both an art teacher and born and brought up well outside of London. Making him Mockney No.1.

Like most bio-pics, facts that don't fit the overall picture are thrown over the wall. Also chronology is not guaranteed either. Never mind the interesting bits that the micro-budget couldn't touch.

Serkiss is simply great as Dury. Indeed hard to see anyone doing any better with the material. Such as it is. Why did women go for this unconventional man who clearly had a great deal of trouble thinking beyond himself and his own creature comforts?

("Don't know" says the movie very honestly. Although he may have been quite nice on the days he wasn't acting a prick. There was a brain and a conscience up there.)

Like many artists you are glad for their art because it shows they had hidden depths that their appearance and behaviour didn't always indicate. Later he left music ("writers block") to try and be an actor. I don't mean play at being an actor, but become a real one. Work at it. Character roles a speciality. He did OK actually. Another fact that could have been a good 20 minutes rather than ending up over the aforementioned wall.

The whole production team has worked hard to get some energy and oomph in the film and not to make it limp like the man himself, but despite that it is really only a time passer. As I have already said, the film doesn't have the budget to get involved in his era (which made him really) and while it is nice to know he had a country house and a swimming pool the real action is clearly elsewhere most of the time.