Spike Island

Film Review by John Nugent | 17 Jun 2013
Film title: Spike Island
Director: Mat Whitecross
Starring: Elliot Tittensor, Nico Mirallegro, Lesley Manville, Jordan Murphy, Emilia Clarke
Release date: 21 Jun
Certificate: 15

You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s 1990: this month alone the Stone Roses headline the Isle of Wight festival, star in a Shane Meadows documentary, and form the centrepiece of this affectionate slice of fandom. It’s a fictional account of five mad-fer-it northern pals who make the pilgrimage to “the most important gig in the ‘istory of the world” at the titular island, getting up to booze‘n’pills-fuelled mischief along the way.

Bowl haircuts and Mancunian affectations abound in an electric, earnest, hazy portrayal of Madchester’s glory days, but since a bunch of mates going to a pop concert does not, by itself, possess enough narrative oomph to drive a film, the script does over-rely on maudlin Britfilm tropes: the domestic abuse victim, the terminally ill parent, the teenage love triangle. The strongest moments come in the depictions of the joys of youthful hedonism and band worship – Christopher Ross’s bold cinematography, in particular, helps capture the potent exuberance of the era.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1827579