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Bookmark this pageOil City Confidential (2009)
Director: Julien Temple
Synopsis
Julien Temple turns his camera on pub-rock legends Dr Feelgood.
Movie review
From Time Out London
It's ironic that Julien Temple’s lusty, full-throated celebration of Canvey Island pub-rockers Doctor Feelgood proves that talent, charisma and a fascinating backstory don’t necessarily produce an iconic band.The film itself – essentially a series of interviews with loveable, loopy lead guitarist Wilko Johnson and fellow band members and hangers-on, interspersed with live and archive footage – is nothing less than a masterclass in musical hagiography, beautifully photographed, superbly edited and utterly involving. The only area where Temple fails is in persuading us that Doctor Feelgood were more than just a highly competent but fatally unambitious R&B combo.
The good news is that it doesn’t matter: what draws us in are the personalities, particularly that of mad-eyed, hyperacute Essex eccentric Johnson, whose poetic musings on his own storied past form the bedrock of the narrative. And it’s quite a tale, from the postwar industrial desolation of the Essex hinterland to the fleshpots and TV studios of London town, and out across the Atlantic to find the band rocking with The Ramones at the height of the NYC punk explosion. What emerges is a film to rank alongside Temple’s own Joe Strummer elegy ‘The Future is Unwritten’ as the very best in British rock documentary. Riveting, even if you don’t like the music.
Author: Tom Huddleston
Time Out London Issue 2058: 28 January – 3 February, 2010
User reviews of this film
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- Ian said...
- Posted on Jul 14 2011 17:07 I have been listening recently to the soundtrack of the DVD "Going back home” (a CD comes with the DVD of the show). Last night I was driving in the Southend area, listening to the recording as I drove past the Kursaal and up through Leigh on Sea, past the Grand Hotel, on my way home. I find it quite sad that the original Feelgoods split so early in their career. I have seen both Lee and Wilko live but sadly I am too young to have seen the original line up live. You can see from the film that they really had something, it’s a shame it did not work out…
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- Ram McD said...
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Posted on Jul 14 2011 14:07
Andy is spot on...Too many reviewers nowadays seem to have a poor grasp of music history,the Time Out reviewer isn't even sure of his own hyperbole- the synopsis reads;" pub-rock legends", moments later we are informed that they never achieved iconic status!
The reviewer fails to find the powerful music & performances inspiring but latches onto the quirky character of Wilko like some charisma vampire- maybe he should spend more time refining his own character & learning, rather than spend his time watching films about bands who make music he doesn't like...
His assertion that the documentary is " nothing less than a masterclass in musical hagiography", is more hack gush- Its really good, Feelgood are a group the director couldn't go wrong with! The Joe Strummer doc. is also very good but hard to imagine as the best british rock doc...
anyone who enjoyed this film may also like the live DVD of Dr.Feelgood "going back home" & Wilko performs with Ian Dury / Blockheads at a gig presented by Annie Nightingale & shown on BBC4 - Report as inappropriate
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- Andy said...
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Posted on Mar 17 2010 13:33
The review displays a severe lack of knowledge of the Music scene at the time the Feelgoods burst onto the scene, and continues to dent the part that this band played in the Punk / New wave explosion of the mid / late 70's.
How can the band that gave birth to the refreshing music scene which developed as a result of the feelgoods not make them "iconic". I suppose that the reviewer is another of those, like Charles Shaar Murray who sucks up to the arty New York bands and credits them with what exploded in London in 1976. Well, listen to the artists themselves instead of placing your own spin and opinions on this band. Without the Feelgoods, there would have been no Clash, Jam, Damned or Stranglers (by theor own admission) and in all likelyhood no Sex Pistols either. What happended in New York was as much to do with British punk rock as the reviewers contribution to great writing.
At last a film about the band that started it all.........whatever anyone says! - Report as inappropriate
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- Grant Stewart said...
- Posted on Feb 12 2010 11:26 Basically the best rockumentary I've ever seen. I love the band; but the joy of this for most people will be (as with most documentaries) discovering a lost piece of history they didn't know. It's just a beautiful, moving, inspiring film.
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- Barney said...
- Posted on Feb 06 2010 14:14 This film has good moments but it's about half an hour overl length and is indulgent where it should provide insight. It has however, been made with a real love of its subject and that just about carries it.
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- Robin Peterson said...
- Posted on Feb 03 2010 12:14 It was a brilliant event, very well done and my congratulations to all those 'Back-room' people who made it happen. We saw it at Vue in Norwich. It was one of the best nights out in a long time. A trult great peice of film making... totally absorbing, particularly the East Anglian floods of 1953. I don't think anyone could have made a boring film about the Feelgoods, but Julian Temple's film was truly magnificent. The 'Gig' afterwards was excellent too and what a delight to see Alison Moyet rocking out. Bliss, more please young lady. And the revealtion of that dark horse... Charles Shaar-Murray, a fine harmonica player as well as a most entertaining musicologist. Overall 5* to all concerned, I hope things like this can be repeated again and again... it was tea-riffic, as Mrs Doyle would say, tee-hee-hee.
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- blib said...
- Posted on Feb 03 2010 08:11 Agree wholeheartedly with all of the above. Wilko pins it all together along with great insights from the "Big Figure" and Sparko. Been a massive fan for 35 years. Wilko had just left when I first saw them partly because they recorded a Lew Lewis song. (He actually supported them on that tour) Go and see it. Well done Mr Temple.
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- Sara said...
- Posted on Feb 03 2010 00:41 A moving, warm tribute to the band. Deeply involving and very very beautiful. A must see.
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- Ian said...
- Posted on Jan 29 2010 19:30 Always been a fan + live local to Canvey so looking forward to an interesting film :-)
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- karen said...
- Posted on Dec 14 2009 14:45 Even if you don't know the band, its a really gripping film. Saw it at the brighton Cine City. Go and see on 2nd Feb in Koko or any cinema, there will be a gig by guitarist Wilko Johnson twitter oil_city
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- mike said...
- Posted on Oct 20 2009 16:51 fantastic and unusual film about one of Britains most underated bands
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