Mike Wilmot
Mike Wilmot Tuesday 26th October 2010 4th Annual DundeeWealth's Stand Up for Kids held at The Royal Conservatory Koerner Hall. Toronto, Canada
It's All Gone Pete Tong Review
Good
Whatever you think about It's All Gone Pete Tong the movie, it is unquestionably one of the worst titles for a film I've ever heard.
At first I thought I was reading it wrong: The title was just It's All Gone and "Pete Tong" was a wayward producer credit or something.
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It's All Gone Pete Tong Review
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Good
A charismatically raucous and appropriately rhythmicfictional biopic about the drug-and-music-fueled career of superstar DJFrankie Wilde, "It's All Gone Pete Tong" is both darkly mirthfuland surprisingly emotive.Opening with an energetic blitz of Wilde's decadent, party-hardylifestyle (cocaine, booze, puking, orgies, stage-diving, magazine covers,Ibiza beach parties), the film follows his descent into a strung-out hellof wheels-falling-off-the-wagon self-pity after going stone deaf -- andthus losing his livelihood and his only real talent. But writer-directorMichael Dowse then taps into the revitalizing potency of a metrical andmetaphysical epiphany that brings Wilde (played with frazzled, hyperactivecharisma by Paul Kaye) roaring back to prominence before he disappearswithout a trace at the height of his fame.
The title is Cockney rhyming slang for "it's all gonewrong," and Kaye -- with his scruffy hair, unevenly angular face andoh-so-British teeth -- rides his character's foolishness and vitality likea racecar with 100,000 hard miles on its tires. He just keeps pushing andpushing even though he knows in the back of his head something's goingto blow. Wilde is so fried he's barely able to form a coherent sentencewhen he's living what he thinks is the good life.
Bad genetics and loud music conspire to bring him downto earth, and once his hearing is gone, he nose-dives toward rock bottomand fights his sometimes comically depicted demons. His coke habit is symbolizedby a guy in a badger suit literally shoveling white powder in his faceand beating him up.
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