The Smiths: Under Review

Take a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron & Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.

Manchester, 1976. Tony Wilson is an ambitious but frustrated local TV news reporter looking for a way to make his mark. After witnessing a life-changing concert by a band known as the Sex Pistols, he persuades his station to televise one of their performances, and soon Manchester's punk groups are clamoring for him to manage them. Riding the wave of a musical revolution, Wilson and his friends create the legendary Factory Records label and The Hacienda club.

The death of punk icon and X-Ray Spex front-woman Poly Styrene sends her daughter on a journey through her mother's archives in this intimate documentary.

Seven promotional films by Morrissey, released initially on VHS in 1990 and then on DVD in 2004. It was certified Gold by the RIAA on 18 January 1991. The title refers to Morrissey's childhood home in Hulme, Manchester. The L is silent, so it sounds like "humourist". The music videos: 1) The Last of the Famous International Playboys 2) Sister I'm a Poet 3) Everyday is Like Sunday 4) Interesting Drug 5) Suedehead 6) Ouija Board, Ouija Board 7) November Spawned a Monster

Visionary musician and artist Brian Eno — known for producing David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, among many others; pioneering the genre of ambient music; and releasing over 40 solo and collaboration albums — reveals his creative processes in this groundbreaking generative documentary: a film that’s different every time it’s shown.

A chronological account of the influential late 1970s English rock band.

In the final days of the yuppie decade, the summer of ’89 saw a new type of youth rebellion rip through the cultural landscape, with thousands of young people dancing at illegal Acid House parties in fields and aircraft hangars around the M25. Set against the backdrop of ten years of Thatcherism, it was a benign form of revolution, dubbed the Second Summer of Love – all the ravers wanted was the freedom to party… The rave scene, along with the drug Ecstasy, broke down social barriers and even football hooligans were ‘loved up’, solving a problem the government had never managed to crack. But lurid tabloid headlines and cat-and-mouse games with the police eventually turned the dream sour, as the gangster element moved in at the end of the summer.

Bill Nighy, Pete Postlewaite and (briefly) Julie Walters, then all of the Everyman Theatre Company, feature in this potent reportage/dramatisation hybrid about the occupation of the Fisher-Bendix Factory in Kirkby. Dohany uses a variety of imaginative techniques to explore the longstanding dispute, and a pronounced sense of urgency pervades this act of solidarity.

Thirteen Smiths' recordings, half of them in a club with a live audience. These alternate with five rock videos, two directed by Derek Jarman (Panic and Ask), two by Tim Broad (Girlfriend in a Coma and Stop Me...), and one by Paula Grief and Richard Levine (How Soon Is Now?). It concludes with Jarman's short film, "The Queen Is Dead," with a three-song soundtrack. The rock videos, particularly Jarman's, are filled with multiple and superimposed images, changing tints, and little narrative coherence; they get their pace from the music's rhythm. Androgyny, dancing children, belching smokestacks, graffiti, angry young men, a waif in a cap: collages of modern alienation.

Directed by BAFTA Award winner Hamish Hamilton, the movie was filmed during the closing night of the V&A installation and features appearances by Pulp leader Jarvis Cocker, fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto, and more, as well as insight from David Bowie Is curators Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh.

Documentary that outlines the 1990s and the decade the changed the world.

Most rock fans may not know the name Anton Corbijn, but they've certainly seen his work. Corbijn shot the iconic cover artwork for U2's The Joshua Tree and Depeche Mode's 101, and gave both groups a new and more dramatic visual persona in the process. Since them, Corbijn's work, bearing his trademark dark shadows and deep, textural details, has graced the covers of recordings by R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen, Morrissey, Nick Cave, John Lee Hooker and even Bon Jovi. Corbijn has also directed a number of music videos for the likes of Nirvana, Johnny Cash and Metallica, and made his debut as a feature film director in 2007 with Control, a screen biography of Ian Curtis of Joy Division (who Corbijn photographed several times in the group's heyday). In Shadow Play: The Making of Anton Corbijn, filmmaker Josh Whiteman offers an intimate look at the life and career of this celebrated visual artist, featuring interviews with Bono, Chris Martin, Michael Stipe, Dave Gahan and Bernard Sumner.

A 1-hour Documentary looking at the Manchester post-punk group and its infamous leader Mark E Smith. The Film follows the current band recording their final Session for the John Peel Show (they were his favourite group and recorded more sessions than any other band) as well as chronicling the chaotic history of the band & its numerous line-up changes.

A look at the life of John Cooper Clarke. From his rise as a 'punk poet', through his heroin addiction, and finally to his comeback.

Documentary on the independent Edinburgh record label Fast Product and Postcard Records and associated bands like Fire Engines, Scars and Josef K

John Peel's Record Box is a documentary film made by Elaine Shepherd, released on 14 November 2005 on Channel 4. It was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award. It is about a small private collection of the British radio DJ John Peel who died in 2004 at the age of 65. Peel's main archive contained more than 100,000 vinyl records and CDs. This smaller private collection, however, contains 143 singles - some of them doublettes - stored in a private wooden box representing some of his personal favourites. According to the documentary, there are no singles by Peel's favorite group, The Fall, because he kept them in a separate box. The film features interviews with John's wife Sheila Ravenscroft, radio DJs and artists like Mary Anne Hobbs, Sir Elton John, Ronnie Wood, Roger Daltrey, Fergal Sharkey, Jack White, Michael Palin and Miki Berenyi.

The story of Stuart Sutcliffe, painter, musician, and founding member of The Beatles, who died when they were on the cusp of fame.

In 1978 the Undertones released Teenage Kicks, one of the most perfect and enduring pop records of all time - an adolescent anthem that spoke to teenagers all over the globe. It was the first in a string of hits that created a timeless soundtrack to growing up, making the Undertones one of punk rock's most prolific and popular bands.

During the 90s, Britpop dominated the airwaves and an epic pop rivalry sparked into life when Blur’s single ‘Country House’ went up against Oasis’s ‘Roll With It’ in the charts.

Showing for the first time how it all came together and what made it so great, the film is all at once hugely enlightening, downright entertaining, and remains the only visual document of this momentous happening ever released.

!Oye Esteban! collects 18 music videos from the King of Manchester Mope, Morrissey. The former singing star of the Smiths is featured prominently in a majority of the videos. Everyday Is Like Sunday Suedehead Will Never Marry (live) November Spawned A Monster Interesting Drug The Last Of The Famous International Playboys My Love Life Sing Your Life Seasick, Yet Still Docked We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful Glamorous Glue Tomorrow You're The One For Me, Fatty The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get Pregnant For The Last Time Boxers Dagenham Dave The Boy Racer Sunny

Steve Coogan, an arrogant actor with low self-esteem and a complicated love life, is playing the eponymous role in an adaptation of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" being filmed at a stately home. He constantly spars with actor Rob Brydon, who is playing Uncle Toby and believes his role to be of equal importance to Coogan's.

A recently bereaved teenage girl goes to live with her aunt in a secluded woodland house, unaware that sinister forces lurk within.

The story of Joy Division’s lead singer Ian Curtis, from his schoolboy days in 1973 to his suicide on the eve of the band's first American tour in 1980.

World-renowned author Harry Newman struggles to come to terms with the untimely deaths of his wife and daughter. Crippled by grief and isolated in his home, he forms an unhealthy attachment...

Inspired by true events, the shocking story of London's most feared and notorious brothers Reggie and Ronnie Kray as they break Frank 'The Mad Axeman' Mitchell from Dartmoor Prison in December 1966.