Stan & Ollie (2018)

Poignant account of Laurel and Hardy’s UK tour of 1953, directed by Jon S. Baird. 

The duo were very much on a decline, career-wise, but there was still enough affection for their old routines for them to be able to perform in theatres. This is set against Hardy’s declining health, and also the evolution of their long and complex relationship. 

Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are superb in the lead roles, really nailing the mannerisms and voices. It’s touching to see how they interact after years of friendship and as a working unit. It’s also quite funny.

Northern Soul (2014)

Excellent British drama directed by Elaine Constantine. 

Two Lancashire teenagers discover Northern Soul music and dedicate their lives to the pursuit of it, hunting down obscure seven-inch singles and dancing the nights away on amphetamines as an escape from the oppressive traps of family and education. 

In some ways, it’s like an English Saturday Night Fever. It’s a perfect evocation of the grimy, gritty, dour aspects of the early 1970s. Everything looks convincingly grubby and horrible. Most of the film is really dark, to the extent that it’s sometimes difficult to see what’s happening. 

Elliot James Langridge is superb as the alienated John, who finds a meaning to life in the sweaty clubs away from the pressures of his parents (Lisa Stansfield plays his mother) and teachers (Steve Coogan plays the unpleasant Mr. Banks). 

The music sounds fantastic – twitchy and energised – and the film has real energy.

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013)

When the North Norfolk radio station is taken over by a multinational corporation, DJ Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney) is sacked – partly because of the urging of self-centred rival Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan). Farrell then holds the station to siege, and unexpectedly it seems that only Partridge can save the day.

On first viewing, at the cinema in 2013, this was a huge disappointment to me as a fan of various Alan Partridge TV programmes. Whereas those allow the slow, painful comedy of Alan’s vanities to unfold, this film-length adaptation loses that excruciating magic through its fast-cut scenes and rapid dialogue. The story is OK but the other characters are too prominent to be left so undeveloped. Michael (Simon Greenall) and Lynn (Felicity Montagu) seem to be there only as a nod to their TV roles, and not because the plot requires them, so the comic talents of both are wasted.

There are a few good chuckles, but it isn’t the glorious study of ego and insecurity that Partridge delivers at his best. A second viewing reveals more to admire, and you notice how clever a lot of the writing is, but it still lacks the outright hilarity you might be hoping for.

The Look of Love (2013)

Biopic of pornographer Paul Raymond starring Steve Coogan and directed by Michael Winterbottom. 

It’s told in flashback, giving an often (deliberately) rather depressing view of the seedy side of London from the 1960s to the 1980s. The film focuses on three of Raymond’s relationships: with his wife Jean (played by Anna Friel), with his girlfriend Fiona Richmond (Tamsin Egerton) and with his daughter Debbie (Imogen Poots). It’s implied that the father/daughter relationship was the most meaningful for both parties, and there’s a poignancy in how that unfolds – despite (or because of) the shabby details around how Raymond made his money.

Overall, while it’s expertly done – and Coogan is as watchable as ever – it's a bleak and oddly unrewarding affair.

24 Hour Party People (2002)

Michael Winterbottom’s vivid and highly entertaining biopic of Tony Wilson, boss of Factory Records and founder of the Hacienda nightclub. Wilson is perfectly evoked by Steve Coogan, who really captures the flamboyant brilliance of the man. 

The film is witty and fairly innovative. At times it breaks the fourth wall with speech direct to camera. Real footage is woven in with recreations so, for example, you “see” Coogan as Wilson in the crowd of a Sex Pistols concert. It makes a strong case for Manchester as a thriving centre for culture from the late 1970s (punk) to the early 1990s (“Madchester”). 

Along the way we get the story of Wilson’s TV work for Granada Reports, his relationship with wife Lindsey (Shirley Henderson), and the rise and fall of Wilson-promoted bands Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays. It’s very funny in places, and even the fantastical sequences such as sightings of a UFO and a conversation with God himself – the sort of gimmicks I usually hate – work well in this context, such is Winterbottom’s masterful juggling of the various threads of fact, fiction, myth and reality.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

A stunningly vivid masterpiece written and directed by Sofia Coppola. Kirsten Dunst is absolutely excellent in the title role. It begins with her portraying the 14-year-old Archduchess of Austria being sent to marry the Dauphin of France (Jason Schwartzman), who would become Louis XVI. It ends during the French Revolution, with the royal couple being taken away from the Palace of Versailles to be executed. Admirably it doesn’t need to show those grisly last moments because the suggestion of them is powerful enough.

The film presents a surprisingly sympathetic and non-judgemental portrait of a young woman in an impossible situation, while skilfully building up the wider context that led to her downfall.

Visually, it’s remarkable. There’s a vivid quality to the colours and every scene could be freeze-framed as a poster. It’s richly sumptuous without merely looking pretty.

In keeping with Marie Antoinette’s “unconventional” ways, the film has an urgency that’s boosted by the prominent new-wave and post-punk soundtrack (Siouxsie & The Banshees, Bow Wow Wow, Adam & The Ants, The Cure, New Order, The Strokes). This refreshing, edgy vitality really brings it alive. It’s about as far from the stilted, fusty tropes of a Merchant Ivory-type costumer as it’s possible to get.

Steve Coogan judges it perfectly as Austrian diplomat Florimond Claude, comte de Mercy-Argenteau. Marianne Faithfull has gravitas as Empress Maria-Theresa. Rose Byrne is terrific as the garrulous Yolande de Polastron, Duchess of Polignac.

It’s a joy from start to finish.

Greed (2019)

Anything directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Steve Coogan is worth watching – see also Twenty-Four Hour Party People, A Cock and Bull Story or The Trip.

Wiki politely calls this “A satire on wealth, centred around a billionaire high-street fashion mogul’s 60th birthday on the Greek island Mykonos.” Others have suggested it is based on the life and career of Philip Green. Arrogant, ruthless and teeth-whitened, Steve Coogan is utterly convincing as the brusque bully in the lead role – Sir Richard “Greedy” McCreadie – as is Isla Fisher as his ex-wife. David Mitchell is perhaps too shy and indecisive as the biographer, although it makes sense that someone more ruthless would be denied access to such a controlling figure. 

There are several interwoven strands:
• The life of the entrepreneur, from school days to the present.
• The build-up and aftermath of his outlandish, stupidly expensive themed party.
• A look at (mostly dysfunctional) personal relationships: father/son, husband/wife, husband/ex-wife, employer/employee.
• A vain daughter attempting to be the star of her own reality-TV show.
• A biographer attempting to research the life of McCreadie.
• A savage satire on wealth and success.
• A searing condemnation of the way the fashion industry is built on a brutally exploited slave underclass.

It does all this and manages to be funny. There’s high drama, too: I certainly didn’t predict the way the party would end...

At the closing credits, the film presents you with some sobering statistics about the pitiful wages people get paid working in sweatshops.