Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger: You all right, mate?

There's a part in the new Oasis documentary, where after all the hype and all the anticipation, the band has finally got out there and put on a fuckin' good show, and the audience is shattered as the lights come up, and there is this kid who would have been a toddler when the band broke up, and he's processing all the feelings he's going through, and it's all just so much, and then some random dude wandering past checks up on him and makes sure he's okay, before giving him a hug and moving on, and fuck me, that is one of the best moments in cinema I've seen all year. 

The obvious hook for the movie is the story of the Gallagher brothers and their extremely weird relationship, and it is genuinely moving to see them go on stage holding hands every night. After all that nonsense they went through, they're now old enough to realise that neither of them is the leader of the band, that Oasis doesn't exist without both of them involved (with a side order of Bonehead). 

Liam needs his brother's songwriting and ear for a wonderful lyric, Noel needs that voice and swagger of Our Kid to carry his songs to the masses. And they both know it.

The way they meet together for rehearsals for the first time is so well done in the new documentary, everyone is watching the door to see Liam come in, and then he just appears from nowhere from the side and wants to know why they're fucking about so much. The magic of cinema strikes again.

(It certainly helps that Liam is still such a funny fucker, and while he makes a point that he doesn't give a fuck if he gets cancelled, he's of the E generation and everybody is welcome, all races, all creeds, and he's just a working class lad who somehow became a mega rock star, still self deprecating, still a master of the most pointed of observations.)

But surprisingly, even with all that, the Gallaghers turn out to be secondary characters in their own story, because Don't Look Back In Anger is in love with the audience. 

It's the dude asserting his right to go into a public park to hear the band; it's the lads having a beer who know the same jokes; it's the Japanese girl explaining how Oasis aren't the band to pull you back up when you've fallen down, they are the band that has fallen down with you, and you gotta get back up together.

The sheer fucking joy is overwhelmingly positive, such a net good in the world, that no matter how much you might loath the Gallaghers or the music, you have to give them credit for that.

Of course, the other main character in the film is that ridiculous setlist, with all those guitars blaring out on banger after banger, the chorus of the masses washing out over every stadium they play. But it's those masses that are the real power of the band, bigger than anything Noel could write, or Liam could ever sing.