‘Supersonic’ – Film Review

This new film about Oasis’s glory years is rousing, heart-rending and really f**king funny

“If we were fishmongers we still would’ve slapped each other with a bit of trout every now and again,” explains Liam Gallagher towards the end of Supersonic. A spectacularly lairy new documentary, it’s a vivid look at the glory days of Britpop’s finest but also gently picks apart the torrid relationship at the heart of the band – that of lovers, fighters and brothers Noel and Liam. “Noel has a lot of buttons, Liam has a lot of fingers; it’s that simple,” sums up Christine Mary Biller, from the band’s management company, at one point.

The film, directed by Mat Whitecross (Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll), starts where it ends, at Oasis’s landmark 1996 Knebworth gigs. With two career-defining albums under their belt (1994’s ‘Definitely Maybe’ and 1995’s ‘What’s The Story Morning Glory’), they were the biggest band in Britain, achieving the feat in a mere three years, after Creation Records boss Alan McGee signed them on the spot at a gig in Glasgow.

Footage of the band striding onto the Knebworth stage before kicking giant footballs into the adoring crowd makes for thrilling viewing. And the next two hours continue to impress, not just musically, but thanks to the hilarious Gallagher brothers, who are on voiceover duty throughout, layering their modern day reflections over archive clips and behind-the-scenes gold.

The snaps of a grinning teenage skinhead Liam and Noel looking like a middle-aged auntie in a cardie are brilliantly funny, as is the recalling of a week in LA boshing “ninja speed”, AKA crystal meth. But footage of the band’s early rehearsals – sauntering through a hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck good ‘All Around The World’ – and their infamous King Tut’s gig are incendiary.

The film hinges on the brothers’ arrogance: “You start a band with the intention of trying to get a telly and a fit bird,” drawls Noel, but they couldn’t have acted like that without the sheer talent that seeps out of every shot of Supersonic. If you weren’t craving an Oasis reunion before, then this will have you begging for it.

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