Good Vibrations release date 29th March
cert (15)
director Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn Review by Dan Auty
The mythology of rock’n’roll is often an awkward fit for the biopic. Cinema is filled with examples of engaging biographical accounts of great musicians - Walk the Line, Bird or Control - but by grounding the creative and sometimes magical process of making music in something as mundane as a historical account of a life, most end up being far less engaging and exciting than the art their subjects made. Good Vibrations is a rare biopic that does manage to capture that same thrill, largely because it is about a fan, not a musician. Terri Hooley is known as the godfather of Belfast punk, whose lifelong worship of music led him to set up the Good Vibrations record shop and subsequent label, in the violence-strewn Northern Irish capital during the late 1970s. Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn’s film opens with Hooley DJing in empty pubs as regular punters are afraid to go out and proceeds to show how his unwavering dedication to bringing music to others breathed life into the city’s artistic scene and brought kids from either side of the political divide together. While Good Vibrations celebrates Hooley’s endeavours and the importance of this life-changing music, the film is absolutely tied to political circumstance. Through clever use of stock period footage, D’Sa and Leyburn create a palpable sense of just how bad the troubles were; as Hooley sees former friends take sides and declare war on one another. One key scene shows Terri gather together his one-time music-loving colleagues in an attempt to head off the trouble that his non-sectarian shop might stir up, using a free vinyl giveaway to mend fences, while the barricades and barbed wire outside his regular gig venue speak volumes for the fear that existed on the streets during this era. It’s this tense backdrop that gives the music an extra charge - this wasn’t just kids getting into loud guitars to annoy their parents, it was an escape and a resistance to a situation they felt they had very little to do with. Although the film features all the expected rise/fall/rise biopic conventions the directors frequently undercut them in unexpected ways. The moment Hooley first hears the life-changing roar of Teenage Kicks is represented purely by the expression on his face; not a note of music is heard as it blasts through his headphones. And even the inevitable fund-raising gig that forms the film’s celebratory climax plays out unconventionally. Leading man Richard Dormer delivers a magnetic depiction of Hooley, capturing the different, often contradictory sides to this man in a way that rarely feels false. He is ably supported by Jodie Whittaker, playing his dedicated wife Ruth, whose support of Terri goes far beyond what many wives might be prepared to put up with. There are some amusing recreations of other real-life folks - Feargal Sharkey, John Peel - but for the most part Good Vibrations is not a film about fame or money. It’s about how music affects the ordinary man, and that mysterious, intangible power that can sometimes effect genuine positive change.
writers Colin Carberry, Glenn Patterson starring Liam Cunningham, Adrian Dunbar, Dylan Moran, Andrew Simpson