The Alcohol Years

Carol Morley of Manchester, England, with unabashed narcissism filmed people talking about her youth. She was blond, slept around, drank too much, had wild friends and big boobs and might even be charismatic. Fascinating.

Movie has parental guidance warnings but actually it could let teens live the scene vicariously, from the end viewpoint, so they can do something different with their youth. Morley herself didn't have much parental guidance. Her father killed himself and wasn't around to have any input.

She was a wild girl and now teaches film making. She pulled it together.

There are friends from my youth that I would love to watch a multi-angled analysis of so I don't have any complaints about the concept of the film. A drunk girl isn't necessarily the person I want to see in this much depth though.

i studied under carol morley for a semester, and she is one of the most interesting people i ever met. her documentary, the alcohol years, is an exceptional documentary. Her style inspired me, as a film student, to switch from fiction and pursue documentary filmmaking. A documentary can be about yourself, and at the same time be interesting and not look like your full of yourself. The Alcohol Years is as funny as it is touching. A definite must-see.

A more realistic precursor to Michael Winterbottom's '24 Hour Party People', this is a compelling, funny, and poignant memoir of Carol Morley's 'lost' years in Manchester in the early 1980's. The story is told through painfully honest interviews with old friends and acquaintances who reveal that the younger Morley was a wild and promiscuous character. Morley herself never appears on screen, a clever device as the viewer is left to piece her story and her character together (although it's also worth watching the DVD as the director's commentary gives Morley a chance to answer back to some of the comments made about her). A beautifully told insight into a fascinating life, time, city and culture.

This is, without a doubt, the most egotistical film I have ever seen. Carol Morley takes a camera and interviews a bunch of people who knew her when she was of her head all the time. Some of these people are famous, presumably roped in to give this thing a selling point. They all comment on how messed up she was , then we see some POV footage while someone drones on the voice-over. None of this is the least bit interesting, unless you are Carol Morley or one of her mates, and then only maybe.

It's kind of like a home video of your aunties wedding but infinitely more depressing and boring.

Several years later it ends, and we know precisely eff all about the subject. But then again why should we care? Who the bleedin Christ is Carol Morley anyway, why would she assume that people would be interested in her?

Just like sitting next to a total drunk on the bus home as he tells you his life story and how it all went wrong...

I saw this film the other night on the Sundance Channel. In the first ten minutes I said to myself, "this could be interesting". In the next ten I said, "OK, you had a lot of sex as a teenager. I get it. Time to move the film forward, give it some direction, tell a story." In the next ten I said, "Wow, she really isn't going to talk about anything else, is she?" And I spent the remainder of the film wondering how a grown woman could have so little self awareness that she sincerely believes that everything she's ever done in her life is so fascinating that it deserves to be memorialized on film.

The film is a series of interviews which go as follows:

Man 1: You were very promiscuous, Carol. Woman 1: You had a lot of sex. Man 2: Everybody wanted to have sex with you. Woman 2: You were incredibly beautiful.

And that's it. For forty-five minutes. No introspection, no deeper meaning, no plot, no humor, no characterization of anyone or anything except the filmmaker. She sincerely believes that a series of interviews with old friends telling her how much sex she had in the early 80s is, all by itself, an interesting subject for a film. Amazing.