Review of Live Forever (2003) by Eric A — 07 May 2011

The thoroughly entertaining documentary "Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Britpop" has a knack for spinning chaos into cohesion. Resolution, however, is another matter. It does seem strange for working artists to be reminiscing about the salad days of, oh, about six or seven years prior. But the movie's brisk pace and multitude of perspectives - as well as the brief vogue period of Britpop itself - sublimate the symptoms of Too Soon Syndrome. One thinks that the perception of Noel and Liam Gallagher's, shall we say, "accelerated" mortality may have also been an impetus for getting their side of the story on film.

"Live Forever" was clearly made with a British audience in mind. Even if you (as I) were a fan of the mid-90s wave of homegrown U.K. rock bands, the film is somewhat axiomatic of the "two nations separated by a common language" construction of Anglo-American relations. Americans, when referred to, are a mixture of rubberneckers, neophytes, and philistines. I can understand. Britpop was a reactionary movement for a generation that didn't buy into the melancholy of American grunge. It's easy to imagine a fair amount of consternation rising from Edinburgh to Bristol when us Yanks posited Seattle as a symbol of post-industrial gloom.

The resulting account of the music and the times is wry, witty, and sometimes beautifully absurd. Some voices are understated, some are provocative, and some are Damon Albarn. But the guileless Gallaghers are the true stars of the movie. They are a two-man demystifying crew, not so much for their stories of typical rock band wankery but for their alternatively deep and dismissive views of Britpop's cultural impact. They don't seem bowled over by their past or supposedly catalyzing a new British patriotisma. They're relics from a former era in rock but inexplicably forward-looking and free from lament, not the hosts of a long-awaited cultural banquet but a glorious bender where living forever meant just living in the moment.