Film reviews: Oasis comeback hits the big screen alongside new D-Day drama

OASIS: DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (15, 122 mins) ****

Birmingham’s most prolific creative force rockets Manchester’s most newsworthy siblings into the cinematic stratosphere – and the result is a rockumentary to blow your socks off and melt your heart at the same time.

‘Creator and writer’ Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) is the first name on the end credits after two hours of high-octane rock ’n’ roll, during which Tommy Shelby’s ‘godfather’ blends foul-mouthed reflection and laddish comedy from music’s equally no-nonsense Gallagher brothers, Noel and Liam.

The film’s raison d’être is, of course, to capture the essence of their global comeback with Oasis in 2025, more than 15 years after their relationship had wholly disintegrated mid-tour in 2009.

There is, of course, no mention of Oasis playing at Moseley’s then Jug of Ale pub six months before breakthrough LP Definitely Maybe was released in August 1994, en route to those two fabled Knebworth gigs in 1996.

But, as with the first scene of the first episode of Peaky Blinders (2013), Knight tests his future Bond-writing credentials by throwing everything into the opening montage of the band’s early days, knowing that if you get the initial energy right, the rest of the film will be hanging freely off an immovable hook.

Radcliffe-born Danny Boyle had the same philosophy with the running sequence opening to Trainspotting in 1996. Here, ‘dum, dum, dum, dum, dum’ goes the relentless drum, slowly speeding up the flashback edits.

The rhythm is the simplest jungle beat you can get – but it’s the international language that will drive the concerts on to identical, super-emotional fan reactions in countries as diverse as Ireland, South Korea, Argentina and the USA.

After an extended period of Noel-led band rehearsals is transformed by Liam Gallagher walking IN ready to start singing, the film moves on to disbelieving, tearful fans attending the tour’s first night in Cardiff on July 4, 2025.

The opening giant amp-meter backdrop is brilliantly conceived, but the stage show itself costs the film a fifth star because too many band members are all but anonymous.

Like Martin Scorsese with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in his Rolling Stones concert film Shine a Light (2008), the directors here – Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern – are understandably besotted by the two main players, Liam and Noel, but they rarely move.

Rhythm guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs gets a fleeting moment in the spotlight, even though he’s acknowledged as ‘the sound of Oasis’, but new drummer Joey Waronker is mysteriously all but ignored. Just because he wasn’t one of the band’s two previous original drummers doesn’t mean he’s not driving every song here.

Liam Gallagher might think it’s ‘genius’ that he merely has to stand still without doing ‘kung fu kicks like (the now 83-year-old) Mick Jagger’. But, for the purposes of this film, Waronker’s driving sticks would have given it even more energy, as per Miles Teller’s remarkable performance in Damien Chazelle’s relentless drumming thriller Whiplash (2014).

For a Disney+ film, the limitless c-word profanity is deeply regrettable.

On most other fronts, Don’t Look Back in Anger is fabulous. From the extraordinary use of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake to its succinct summary of how everyday life has become increasingly fractious since Oasis split up, to showing how live music can still unite people in our post-Covid and increasingly uncertain world, the film has genuine emotional heft. Much the same would have been achieved speaking to the exuberant Mexican fans who attended the final Black Sabbath concert at Birmingham’s NEC on February 4, 2017.

If purely seen as an onstage concert film, this does not surpass Baz Luhrmann’s EPIC, which was even more stunning on IMAX screens this spring thanks to the remarkable quality of the found footage of Elvis Presley, rock’s ultimate showman.

But the jumping, turn-your-backs ‘Poznań’ crowd sequences here are IMAX cinema-seat-shaking incredible, surpassing even the similar scenes of AC/DC’s own 2009 River Plate gig.

And, because the Gallagher brothers are not only still alive but reunited and fully rebooted, Don’t Look Back in Anger will have the greater heartfelt impact on fans.

Whether Princes William and Harry will buy into its core message is an unasked question entirely.

PRESSURE (12A, 100 mins) ****

At last! A proper drama is in cinemas with a decent story, good performances and a score to match some majestic cloud formations.

The language might be a touch fruity for the certificate, but it’s the pressing do-or-die need to use short-term forecasts to try to determine the weather-dependent D-Day landings’ date which counts.

Basing it on David Haig’s 2014 stage play inevitably reduces the need for big action set pieces, but Australian director-editor Anthony Maras (Mumbai Hotel, 2018) is much more interested in the machinations of what makes men tick under (atmospheric and wartime) pressure.

Irish actor Andrew Scott shines as RAF Group Captain and chief meteorologist James Stagg, a downbeat Scot whose understanding of British weather systems is at odds with the seemingly more gung-ho American Colonel Irving Krick (Chris Messina).

Krick has never got any forecast wrong in the Middle East and Africa, so will Supreme Commander General Dwight D Eisenhower (Brendan Murphy) trust his own man’s historic charts – or listen to the British chief meteorologist regarding the potential arrival of a major storm on the preferred mobilisation date?

When remembered to be used, the score by German composer Volker Bertelmann (Conclave) has a lovely brooding nature and memorable motif in what is a lovely change of output from British comedy giants Working Title.

Having played a soldier on the beach in Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan (as well as voicing Donal in director Steven Knight’s Tom Hardy film Locke in 2014), there’s a real sense of symmetry this week that Scott is so masterful throughout his own big chance in Pressure. Don’t miss it.

PRACTICAL MAGIC 2 (12A, 130 mins) **

The first 1998 Practical Magic film felt long at a mere 104 minutes, finally finding its audience post-cinema release via witch-themed sleepover sessions in homes.

This uncalled-for sequel has bolted on added padding to reach two hours and 10 minutes, as well as giving the relatively ageless stars Nicole Kidman (now 59) and Sandra Bullock (62) the chance to return as sisters Gillian and Sally Owens. With daughters to worry about, they are now hoping their family can finally rid itself of a curse that means falling in love will be followed by deaths.

Great Danish director Susanne Bier arrives stuck more in the drudgery of Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) than floating on the Oscar-winning merits of In a Better World (2010).

But for fans of the first film, there will be the feeling that if some things don’t make too much sense, then that’s perfectly fine and all part of the fun, especially when backed with a retro soundtrack and if they truly believe that ‘No magic is stronger than sisterhood’. Girls, get your tickets. Chaps, you’ve been warned!

RUNNER (15, 98 mins) ***

Not to be confused with the current TV movie The Runner, starring Gal Gadot and directed by Kevin Macdonald, this is a throwback comedy-action movie about a cartel trying to steal a new liver during a critical medical delivery.

Reacher star Alan Ritchson is ex-SEAL Hank Malone, trying to make the delivery, with Owen Wilson’s Ben Bishop adding everyman comedy value (imagine Rambo having a sidekick during a medical emergency).

Taglined ‘Next-day delivery isn’t an option’ and weakly billed as being ‘from the team that brought you The Hitman’s Bodyguard’, Runner is like a portal back to the hit-and-miss 1980s – amid some brutal scenes of violence, strong language, sustained threats and a lack of sustained momentum, a little girl’s life remains at stake as the unlikely counterbalance.

Don’t forget your trainers – and do tie your laces properly.

FALL 2 (12A, 97 mins) ***

Taglined ‘Don’t Look Down’, this is a second film where viewers’ appetite for heights will be severely tested.

In the 2022 original, two girls climbed a giant mast – with fatal consequences.

Here, the sister of one of them honours her memory by going climbing in Thailand.

As with the first movie, how ‘good’ this film is will depend on your own vertiginous tolerance – surely never more stress-tested than in Alex Honnold’s Oscar-winning 2018 documentary, Free Solo.

If you are scared of any kind of heights, remember this is only a movie. So cling on by your fingertips – and enjoy!

Reviewing films in Birmingham since 1989, Graham Young is a former UK Regional Film Journalist of the Year and three-time runner-up.