Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll **** (2010, Andy Serkis, Tom Hughes, Clifford Samuel, Joseph Kennedy, Arthur Darvill, James Jagger, Mackenzie Crook, Olivia Williams, Sam Spruell) – Classic Movie Review 4336

Finally leaving the ghost of Gollum far behind, Andy Serkis gives a stunning, knockout performance – way the best he has ever done – in director Mat Whitecross’s marvellously full-on, in-your-face 2010 biopic of troubled, polio-afflicted Ian Dury, who became an icon of Britain’s Seventies punk-rock scene.

Honest and unflinching, and it doesn’t hold back from painting Dury in a dark light, it makes uncomfortable, provocative viewing – and that’s good. But it is Serkis and his singing of the now classic songs (Rhythm Stick, Reasons to Be Cheerful etc) that make it great. Tom Hughes plays the musician Chaz Jankel with whom Dury collaborated.

It is rated 15: be ready for an avalanche of swearing.

Also in the cast are Clifford Samuel, Joseph Kennedy, Arthur Darvill, James Jagger, Mackenzie Crook, Olivia Williams, and Sam Spruell.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4336

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com