“Julien Temple concludes his cinematic history of punk… making a persuasive, highly entertaining case for why rabble-rousing musical renegades Dr Feelgood are the unsung progenitors of the movement.” — The Scotsman
Riveting... a masterclass in musical hagiography, beautifully photographed, superbly edited and utterly involving.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2010
Oil City Confidential 2009
“This highly entertaining film, a study of the pub rock blues band Dr Feelgood, completes Julien Temple’s trilogy on British rock in the 70s… Reacting against the effete rock of the time, the quartet were tough, posturing Essex boys from Canvey Island, which they called Oil City to give it a hardboiled American feel, and the haunting industrial beauty of the Thames estuary is well caught in the movie… The film’s star is the wild university-educated former English teacher Wilko Johnson, guitar and chief composer. A teetotaller, he had a big drug problem and broke with the band in 1977 after a row with the forceful, heavy-drinking vocalist Lee Brilleaux… Now shaven-headed, in his early 60s… he’s a wild man, off stage and on, funny, eloquent and charismatic.” — Philip French, The Observer.
“A vivid study of period, music and place… Julien Temple has made many movies about music – about the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer and Glastonbury. But I don’t think he’s ever made a film as good, and purely insightful as this one.” — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian