Review of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010) by Gabriel H — 09 Jan 2010

This is a well made and well stylised film in which Andy Serkis is very good as Ian Dury and proves there's more to his life that putting on a dodgy CGI suit and looking for his precious. It's a 'matter of fact' biopic which doesn't take sides, so you have to decide for yourself- I don't know much about Ian Dury as it was all a bit before my time, but this film made me think he was, as he might say, a bit of a self-important cunt.

Plus, though he was doing something ahead of its time, I don't think he was really all that talented, and it would've been good to have seen more of the other band members, who were also integral to the creative process.

The problem for me was that I found I just didn't really care what happened to the characters, which can happen if you want to be matter-of-fact in a biopic, but I felt it could've been more engaging had the focus not been so focused on him and his son- poor kid- though this film avoided biopic cliches and was lead by a very good lead performance.