Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010) Reviews

• Brilliant Andy Serkis. Film Isn't Otherwise Bad

  crossbow01062012-04-19

  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.

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• Very Good Indeed

  Ali_John_Catterall2009-12-13

  Like an uncommonly honest MP, this reviewer must declare a particular interest: Ian Dury was born on 12 May, a Tuesday. Me too: Tuesday, 12 May. (Albeit 28 years later.) Andy Serkis, who plays him here, is half-Iraqi, like me. And while Dury studied under Peter Blake at the Royal College Of Art, I, er, once worked in the Royal College Of Art shop. Polio helped make Dury the man he was, but cancer ultimately made him bigger than life. There's an allotment set aside in every heart for one of England's national treasures. And not just England's: strange as it is to picture a generation of nascent Brooklyn and West Coast rappers wigging out to Black Sabbath or German art minimalists during the 1970s, how stranger still that A Tribe Called Quest should sample Dury for 'Can I Kick It'? Or is it? The Blockheads sound is a steaming gumbo of (hugely influential) influences: a dollop of pub rock, a sprinkling of free jazz, a dash of lover's rock, a generous infusion of English music hall, all topped off with Chas Jankel and Co's boiling blue funk. What's not to like about that lot? It shouldn't really work, but it does - just like the frontman himself, as complicated as any artist worth their sodium chloride. Kitted-out like he'd ram-raided a jumble sale run by a collective of art students, Psychobillies and NHS outpatients, Dury's arty 'Do It Yourself' attitude anticipated British Punk Rock (which studied, literally, at his feet) by several years. Not that he aligned himself with any such movement. There's a lovely clip on YouTube from 1979, in which he invites "Mickey Jones from The Clash" up on stage to play 'Sweet Gene Vincent with him.' "Now listen," he warns the Clash man, "we've got *four* chords in this song, Michael..." Jones' gloriously chagrined grin is worth the admission alone. So, are we to mourn this real mensch's decline with some Thunderbird wine and a black handkerchief then? Or instead, party like it's 1977? Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is a truly life-affirming and brilliantly unsentimental celebration of the Mockney and his music. Serkis was born to play this role, allowing him to make the most of his celebrated physicality and vocal dexterity. (So convincing, in fact, the real Blockheads have suggested Serkis subsequently go on the road with them.) Whether barrelling, quip-me-quick, through a set - a defiant Long John Silver with a singing range that starts out like a caress from a brillo pad soaked in brandy - and ends up like a charging Cockney Elephant; making a literal breakfast of a recording studio by pouring milk and eggs into the mixing desk; or bellowing the song that gives the film its title - and really, what other title could there possibly be? - he's the spit, snot and fag ash of the unofficial Poet Laureate who gave us the likes of 'Billericay Dickie', 'Plaistow Patricia', and of course, 'Spasticus Autisticus': it's one of the ironies of his career that the showman's terrifically self-assertive contribution to 1982's United Nations Year of The Disabled was subsequently banned. "I'm not Tiny Tim, I'm Ian Dury!" he roars at "Graham from the Spastics Society". "People like me don't want sympathy - we want respect!" Respect is what the filmmakers bring, by the bucket-and-spade, closely aided by Dury's daughter Jemima and son Baxter - now a musician in his own right, who appeared with his dad on the cover of 'New Boots And Panties', looking for all the world like Dodger to Ian's Bill Sikes. And this is really a film about fathers and sons. Bill Milner plays Baxter, a rock star's son going predictably, if spectacularly, off the rails, and Ray Winstone is Ian's adored dad Bill. Between these generational polarities, Ian struggles to reconcile familial responsibilities (and two lovers) with his growing fame, while trying to do right by his father's memory. "Being an underdog with nothing to lose is a good place to start in life," Bill tells him, teaching him to stand on his own two feet, if only with the aid of callipers. Years later, when too busy to watch over Baxter's swimming session, Ian's glibly departing words are "Keep your head up, keep kicking, try not to drown." It was in a swimming pool, of course, where Ian contracted polio. As we say, complicated. Dury puts it more bluntly: "To be a geezer like me, you've got to be a bit of a selfish loony; occasionally one's behaviour makes one ashamed of oneself." All of which probably suggests scenes of anarchic mayhem followed by periods of reflection and redemption. Well, bollo to that, 'cos this ain't your average rock star biopic either: no insultingly reductive peaks and troughs. As Dury states towards the end of the film, "The only thing I've missed is a few buses." Instead, scenes are introduced, non-linear-fashion, via the appropriate conceit of a stage performance: backdrops spring to life, as real-life morphs into pop videos. There's sterling support too from Naomie Harris as Ian's girlfriend Denise Roudette, and Olivia Williams as his extremely understanding first wife Betty. Actually, being 'extremely understanding' would appear to be the default setting for anybody within this force of nature's sphere. Ian, you feel, would have really enjoyed this film, as playful and rough around the gills as he was, with a gleefully inventive aesthetic. He would have also liked the fact its producer set up a disability training scheme for young, disabled, aspiring actors and filmmakers during the production; there's a scene toward the end in which Ian visits a group of disabled kids, and addresses them with exactly the same beautiful frankness he'd reserve for anybody. The final 10 minutes treats us to a superbly recreated Blockheads gig, for which they should clear the cinemas of seats and let the people mosh till they drop. Oi Oi!

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• Creative, imaginative, un-formulaic bio

  cinematic132010-04-29

  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.

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• Serkis is no Blockhead!!!

  madandbad2010-01-12

  The magnetic performance of Andy Serkis is reason alone to watch this film! Masterly performance! The film itself held my interest throughout... but having bought Dury's stuff on 7" vinyl when it came out, I had a vested interest!!! People unfamiliar with the man and his music might struggle to last the pace. I would have liked the movie to have paid more attention to the great chart success the man had... rather than just fast forwarding to the ensuing self-destruct mode of fame!!! Missed opportunity... one could indeed say What a Waste!!! Interested in British music history... success over adversity... controversy... go and see it. A fan of Dury and the Blockheads... go and pay homage. Might have been better... but still a great tribute to a great artiste, and well worth a view!

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• Not a waste

  Lejink2011-10-16

  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.

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