Opening In Australian cinemas April 15
* * 1/2
Nick Moran’s Creation Stories is a direct mash-up of 24 Hour Party People and Trainspotting; it’s not even half as good as either, but enjoyable enough if you like both. The milieu is fascinating and the lead performance so committed that it pulls you through a muddy second act.
That performance is Ewen Bremner’s (Spud from Trainspotting), playing Alan McGee, the founding father of UK indie label Creation Records. As we did with Tony Wilson in 24 Hour Party People, we follow McGee as he discovers drugs, discovers Manchester, and discovers bands, including, ultimately, Oasis.
London and Manchester post-punk, throughout the 80s, and into the era of rave and Britpop, are places to be, and the film is most fun as a nostalgic visit. Bremner, in every scene and narrating as well (via a classic ‘interview with a journo now I’m rich and famous’ framework) puts ferocious energy into his McGee; at times it’s almost too loud, too frenetic, too much, but it’s certainly committed. The script is overly convoluted in that muddy second act and the film is so indebted to the styles of its antecedents that it has very little of its own. But, like Bremner, it’s energetic, a bit wild, and, essentially, fun.