Forget New York, Los Angeles, London, or even Liverpool – 24 Hour Party People celebrates Manchester, where all of your other favorite bands originated. Directed by Michael Winterbottom and based on Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s sort-of-true script, the film tells the story of groundbreaking label Factory Records – which launched the careers of Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays – by way of founder Tony Wilson’s (played here by Steve Coogan) wall-breaking narration. From the post-punk Seventies to the Madchester Eighties and Nineties, the film’s got a killer soundtrack, and skewers movie-making conventions the same way its subjects ignored the rules of music. – Carys Anderson
