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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 12/15/2009 : 12:05:30
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Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Why has it taken Andy Serkis to the age of 45 before being given this amazing opportunity to shine by an industry mired in playing it safe.
I have no idea what Ian Dury was like in real life, but Serkis embodies his spirit so completely that by the end of the film I felt they were both my friends.
I'm pretty sure I saw Serkis's name on the Exec Prod credits, though it's not listed on imdb. Whatever - it was a great choice. The film is better in parts than as a whole, but it's worth seeing. And not just for Serkis's astounding performance.
He's surrounded by excellent supporting roles, albeit some sketched in lightly. I'll single out Noel Clarke as a seen-it-all-before recording studio manager, young Bill Millner (from Son of Rambow), and especially Naomie Harris as Denise, Dury's longtime anglo-Jamaican girlfriend.
Harris, who recently starred as Hortense in the UK TV adaptation of A Small Island, has a unique screen presence, truly fresh, honest, and full of charm.
I wish the film had retained the stylistic narrative of its opening sections, mixing animation live action -- not as a gimmick but to help convey in a 2-dimensional artform the feeling of the 1970s. Once the film lost that extra element it settled into a more conventional retelling of how a deeply troubled muso made music.
Actually, I think Dury was an extraordinary poet philosopher rather than an extraordinary musician. He described himself as an entertainer. As an inheritor of the Alexis Korner or Viv Stanshell approach to entertainment, I guess he was.
But this film prob'ly says more about Serkis than Dury. Whether or not you're into punk or ever were, which I was not, Serkis will hit you with Dury's rhythm stick till it hurts.
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Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
