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best movie i've ever seen.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Reasonably good biopic on the life of Ian Dury, one of the founders of punk music (though labeling his music as punk does him a disservice. Not that punk is bad, but Ian Dury's music does not really fit into a single genre).Starts pretty badly - jumping all over the place, lacking focus. I guess this was a deliberate attempt on director Matt Whitecross' part to capture the mania and intensity that was Ian Dury. Unfortunately it mostly just makes you feel disoriented.However, the movie eventually settles down and a more linear and cohesive narrative ensues. Good performance from Andy Serkis and Ian Dury. Good support from Olivia Williams, Naomie Harris, Tom Hughes, Ralph Ineson and Bill Milner. James Jagger, son of Mick Jagger, also appears, in a minor role.Ultimately, quite interesting, though you feel that the movie only scratches the surface of Ian Dury's life.

Version I saw: UK DVD release Actors: 7/10 Plot/script: 7/10 Photography/visual style: 7/10 Music/score: 8/10 Overall: 7/10 Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is the story of punk-rock star Ian Dury (played by Andy Serkis). He struggled with the childhood polio that had left one hand and one leg almost unusable, and with the classic rack star egotism that drove away first his wife Betty (Olivia Williams), then his long-term girlfriend Denise (Naomie Harris).Serkis is the acknowledged master of the motion capture CGI technique, and his command of physical acting was important to portraying Dury's trademark inhibited gait as well as his charismatic stage presence. Seeing him performing the songs made famous by Dury and the Blockheads - and bring some plot-advancing acting into the mix in the very same scenes - is impressive and exciting to watch.The film features an impressive supporting cast of familiar names and faces: Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook, Ray Winstone and Arthur Darvill all make significant appearances, and the young Bill Milner has a key role as Dury's son Baxter, an ordinary boy plunged into his hedonistic rock & roll lifestyle.S&D&R&R has some interesting things to say about disability, and the way we treat the disabled. It is an important part of the film's message that Dury is actually often a quite unpleasant character, treating those close to him appallingly. We have seen the prima donna rock star story a million times, but the in-built dependency on others forced by Dury's weak hand and leg adds an extra dimension.This is a story about how the thin line between callous and patronising that we all must tread in this area, and about the fact that everyone should benefit from it, not just the people we like.

Ian Dury's span of popular success in the UK only lasted a few years and I can't say I was over-familiar with either his work (bar the early hit singles and albums) but this film belied my fear that perhaps there wasn't much of a story to tell. In fact, it probably over-compensates by adopting a non-linear narrative approach as well as some arty-farty jump-cuts and tricksy animation sequences to inject a knockabout feel to proceedings. This is again a somewhat contrived and forced contrast to the bathetic scenes of Dury's growing up as a young boy, abandoned by his father, bullied at school by his class-mates and one particular teacher, his adult predilection for treating his womenfolk very badly indeed and finally the difficult relationship with his own son Baxter, who has since become a recognised musician in his own right. I felt the scenes with the two women in his life, his wife and mistress were a bit overwrought and overwritten, their dialogue too forced and you're always anticipating an inspired pearl of wit or wisdom from Dury when real life just doesn't work that way, even with clever bastard word-smiths like him. It's like expecting Shakespeare to curse and moan in rhyming couplets if he was having an argument - my point is we know that Ian Dury had a way with words but not every minute of the day.All that said, the film rattled along and certainly did the man's musical legacy proud. I thought a bit more could have been done to play up the importance of Chaz Jankel and his nifty tune-spinning - certainly Dury was a lot less successful when writing to someone else's melodies. Andy Serkus is great in the Dury role, he looks and talks the part very well, acts his disability imperceptibly and keeps up the characterisation right into the songs, of which many are aired.For some reason the film misses out about the last 15 years of his life and we don't even get to know how he died, although the director may claim that the film was a celebration of his life and won't be the last bio-pic to fast forward past the more mundane parts of an artist's life. For that reason, the first half of the film as he struggles for success is better than the inevitable rock-star excess in the second half, where Dury's persona becomes a bit blurred.All told though, I quite enjoyed it but regret somewhat that the director felt the need to jazz up his subject's life in a way that I'm not sure a no-bullshit guy like Dury would altogether appreciate.

Blows the typical Hollywood bio-pics (RAY, WALK THE LINE, etc. etc.) right out of the water. A career-defining performance from Andy Serkis...his BAFTA nomination was more than well-deserved. He literally inhabits this physically and emotionally demanding role. The film does not sugar-coat the fact the Dury was a hard man to be around. Superbly edited as well, combining graphics, animation, varying film-stocks and angles, B&W, flashbacks, and fantasy sequences (ever see a band perform UNDER water?). While this might sound like a mish-mash, it certainly reflects those same artistic elements and chaos of the times. Yet the movie never loses it's narrative thru-line. A must-see, even more so for those who remember.