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Review - Screening "It's All Gone Pete Tong"
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| E2EK1EL |
From the makers of Human Traffic ...
To be posted after 7pm, on Thursday .... |
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| Kytracid |
I got a copy of this (don't ask from where :D) cause i figured they wouldn't show this flick in N.America, and i wasn't going to wait for the DVD to get released. Only watched the first 30 mins, but from what i saw it seems like a great party movie. Have to be pretty good to beat Human Traffic though...that movie is destined to becoming a cult classic .
Look for the cameos from superstar DJ's -- including one from Mr #1 in the world as well as Tongy. ;)
If this movie gets a wide release i'll definately hold off watching it for the theatre experience. |
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| ShadoWolf |
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...d=1118140036738
More than spin
It's All Gone Pete Tong, from makers of Fubar, dips into spoiled-celebrity global DJ culture
BEN RAYNER
POP MUSIC CRITIC
DJ-ing, at its best, is indeed an art form, but there's always been something silly about the lionization of dance music's most esteemed turntable technicians.
These are, after all, people rewarded with obscene amounts of money, first-class plane tickets around the globe and rock-star adoration and celebrity for, essentially, playing other people's records in creative sequence.
Some, like Canada's own John Acquaviva, treat their vocation with workmanlike humbleness and quiet gratitude for being allowed to make a living doing something slightly ridiculous. At the other end of the "superstar DJ" spectrum, one finds divas of the Junior Vasquez variety, people who've developed an inflated sense of their position in the world and who should take a moment or two to remember that entertaining a roomful of clubbers isn't the same as curing cancer.
Frankie Wilde, the doomed anti-hero of Fubar director Mike Dowse's newest feature, It's All Gone Pete Tong, falls in this latter category.
A celebrated nightclub mainstay on Spain's notorious party island, Ibiza, for 11 years, Wilde has parlayed his skill behind the decks into tremendous wealth and fame and an extended, nihilistic freefall that sees him indulging in enough booze, cocaine and groupies to give the members of Mötley Crüe pause.
As played — fearlessly, hilariously and quite brilliantly — by British actor Paul Kaye, the perpetually soused Wilde is an objectionable, self-centred character with little more to offer his neglected family and the world beyond the dancefloor than witless observations like, "I'm the Imelda Marcos of the flip-flop world."
He's due some sort of comeuppance, and when years of high decibels and hard living conspire to rob him of his hearing, it arrives.
It's All Gone Pete Tong (British rhyming slang for "it's all gone wrong") is not a flattering portrait of the DJ lifestyle, by any means. So it's an impressive show of good sportsmanship on the part of Pete Tong himself to have lent not just his name, but his time, advice and musical know-how as an executive producer to the project.
Tong is, after all, arguably the most popular DJ in Britain, thanks to his long-running weekend show on BBC radio. He is exactly the sort of globetrotting record spinner the movie lampoons so viciously.
"They told me the title and said `What do you think?'" says Tong while whipping down the motorway to Heathrow Airport. "And I couldn't really complain, because they're obviously using my name ... If your name's gonna be rhyming slang and you have the chance to be in a movie, it's all good for me. It's notoriety."
Tong has been involved with the film since Human Traffic producer Allan Niblo approached him with the title (and little else) three years ago, offering "spiritual guidance" and coaching Calgary-raised Dowse in the details of European post-rave club culture.
Dowse was brought on board after Fubar — the beloved cult "mockumentary" about a couple of dimwitted, Western Canadian ultra-hosers — screened at London's Raindance Festival in 2002, despite knowing very little of the dance scene about which he would shortly be writing and directing an entire feature.
`If your name's gonna be rhyming slang and you have the chance to be in a movie, it's all good for me.
It's notoriety'
British club DJ Pete Tong
"I came in a little bit cold," he says. "I did my research and I'd been to a couple of raves in my life and had experienced it and stuff, but I was never a huge fan of it.
"I come from a much more Fubar, rock 'n' roll background. So I sort of immersed myself in it and met a lot of DJs and producers who were essential to the London scene to just get a sense of what was there to be made fun of. And the most iconic and the most ridiculous character is the DJ. It's just such a funny lifestyle. They're bigger than rock stars over there and there's no splitting of the profits — it's just them."
In Tong's estimation, Dowse's inexperience with club culture was "a major benefit, because he didn't have any real agenda or any thoughts other than to write a really entertaining story."
There are certainly no sacred cows in It's All Gone Pete Tong, whose first half is a veritable, vomit- and snot-splattered orgy of excess and unpleasant behaviour. It is notable for several appearances by an enormous, coke-encrusted badger wearing a pink apron and a cameo by Fubar stars Paul Spence and David Lawrence as short-tempered Austrian musicians trying to record an album with Wilde.
Things level off after Wilde, with the aid of a comely therapist (Beatriz Batarda), begins to come to terms with his hearing loss, as Dowse's script suddenly allows for the same sweetness and humanity that lent Fubar's second act (during which one of the bangers loses a testicle to cancer) an unexpected emotional depth.
The abrupt change in mood comes a little uneasily, but it doesn't detract from the overall likeability of the film and it provides the audience with some belated reasons to care for Frankie.
"You get the darker and the funnier humour out of putting characters in the darkest situation," says Dowse. "In Fubar, it was Deaner losing a nut and in this one, it's Frankie losing his hearing. It's a lot more fun as a director and a screenwriter to just kick the crap out of your main character. And then, how they react is the humour. Just do the worst possible thing to your main character and see what happens.
"Paul was a trooper. We kicked the out of him and he never complained. I think he recognized the opportunity that it was."
While critical reaction to It's All Gone Pete Tong — which, despite premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, is only just opening in Canada tomorrow after a limited run in the States in April and wide release in Britain last month — has ranged from delight to revulsion, Kaye has drawn near-universal praise for his delirious portrayal of Frankie. Dowse is, in fact, already scheming to drum up Oscar buzz for his lead.
If the film takes off, then, where does this leave the DJs it holds up to public ridicule? Can their egos suffer such bruising?
"I've never been an advocate of us taking ourselves too seriously," says Tong, who briefly appears in the film alongside such fellow jocks as Carl Cox and Tiesto. "We're in the entertainment business. You get the benefits and the trappings of the success, so you've got to be prepared to laugh at yourself, as well. I think that's very healthy.
"And I think it symbolizes, in a way, kind of the end of an era. That side of DJ-ing — swigging whiskey all the time and living life to the last — I think that kind of went out of fashion at the end of the '90s. Everything's a bit more technical and a little more professional.
"The old-guard DJs are ... well, I don't want to say `boring,' but they've kind of been there and done that." |
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| Callie5 |
| I'm so excited for this movie! |
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| Time2Burn |
| quote: | Originally posted by E2EK1EL
To be posted after 7pm, on Thursday .... |
Is there a screening of this tonight? |
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| Form&Funktion |
Loved it but completely "apples & oranges" compared to Human Traffic. I oftened wondered myself about the concept of this movie since I started spinning myself.....very interesting!!!!!! It's definitely one of those movies you need to see a couple times to remember all the witty dialogue.
A must see!!!!
p.s. - Shut Up John...you loved it too |
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| Mr. Furious |
| quote: | Originally posted by Time2Burn
Is there a screening of this tonight? |
It was last night, June 9th at Paramount on Richmond.
Here's my review after seeing it the second time...
That Star review was pretty much bang on. I even agree with that part about the over-glamourization of DJ's when they're essentially playing someone elses music in sequence...
Ezekial said he liked it, but it wasn't as good as Human Traffic....Especially since, before watching this film I insisted that it was better.
I guess they are two completely different genre's. Don't get me wrong, Human Traffic was an awesome movie, but I guess it's not a fair comparison since Human Traffic was definitely a comedy, while Pete Tong was more of a dramedy (I hate that term) or even a mockumentary. What I loved about Pete Tong was the epic feel, the location, the camera work, and the casting. The casting couldn't have been better in my opinion, and Paul Kaye was definitely the perfect guy for the script. I'm not a big fan of those tug on the heartstrings, human triupmh movies, but when Frankie Wilde learns to overcome his disability, it's almost inspiring. For some reason, movies with climactic club scenes always give me chills.
A few things I got from the Q and A after the Jackman Hall screening, was that this film was shot for only $1,000,000. The club scenes were shot in the clubs during regular club hours. The clubs wouldn't allow the film crew to come in and use the facilities on their own time, so they had no choice but to film while a party was in progress. What they did was set up a mock-up DJ booth underneath the actual DJ booth, so when you see the crowd cheering, it looks like they're cheering for Frankie Wilde, whe really, they're cheering for the actual DJ that was playing just above him.
All in all, it was great all around especially considering the limited budget, and it being the second movie written and directed by Michael Dowse. |
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| Mr. Furious |
| quote: | Originally posted by Form&Funktion
It's definitely one of those movies you need to see a couple times to remember all the witty dialogue.
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"I want you to bang those drumgs like you bang your fookin sista!" |
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| StereoPrincess |
| it was directed by the guy that did Fubar so i am expecting a similar style of film. |
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| Mr. Furious |
Oh, and I also have a friend that's been living in London for the last 2 years, and he says nobody actually says "it's all gone Pete Tong". He said he's heard it a couple times, but not enough to actually refer to it as a "saying".
Maybe Halo20 can verify. |
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| angelgirl |
| Really enjoyed this film. Unbelievable performance by Mr. Kaye. Director Michael Dowse was right when he said he kicked the out of Paul when making this film. Two thumbs up over here. |
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| angelgirl |
| quote: | Originally posted by Mr. Furious
Oh, and I also have a friend that's been living in London for the last 2 years, and he says nobody actually says "it's all gone Pete Tong". He said he's heard it a couple times, but not enough to actually refer to it as a "saying".
Maybe Halo20 can verify. |
I have been told this as well by my british relatives. My new fave cockney slang though is Crazy = Patrick Swayze. "You gone all patrick swayze on me?" taken even further to "You gone all dirty dancing on me"? Only the brits :D |
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