Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (DVD)

Ian Dury was always an unlikely candidate for pop success. Crippled by a childhood bout of polio, as the front man of the Blockheads he nevertheless achieved stardom at the height of the the punk era, unleashing the distinctive likes of What A Waste, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick and, of course, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (a phrase, Dury, in fact, coined) on an unsuspecting public. All of this while simultaneously juggling relationships with the long suffering mother of his child (Olivia Williams) and new teenage girlfriend (Naomie Harris).

Good though this story is, Mat Whitecross’s biopic nevertheless runs the risk of descending into the usual rock movie clichés.  Dury’s childhood trauma and adult battles with the booze, as well as his somewhat wayward son are compelling but let’s face it: films about troubled musicians are nothing new.

That the film largely escapes banality is down to both the success of Andy Serkis’s performance as Dury and the continuously energetic direction from documentary maker Whitecross. In one of his few lead roles (other than King Kong), Serkis is on brilliant form as the charismatic, disabled and presumably quite maddening Dury. With Whitecross providing an endless succession of surreal visual effects – Dury describes his contraction of polio to a stage audience, some sequences are semi-animated, one musical performance occurs underwater – Serkis’s Dury at times seems almost like a Mighty Boosh character. But it’s his best performance yet and six years after the last Lord of the Rings film, finally suggests he might now be escaping the shadow of Gollum.

The accompanying cast and crew interviews, deleted scenes and a redundant B-Roll reveal relatively little, other than that while Serkis is a genuine lifelong fan of Ian Dury’s music, director Whitecross seems barely to have heard of him until he started filming.

Fans of ugly actors are also in for a treat. With Serkis joined by Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook in the cast, the film probably includes more odd looking people than any other British film this year.

Overall Verdict: I, The Dury? A career best performance from Andy Serkis and plenty of visual flair save this from the musical biopic doldrums. Not a waste.

Special Features:
Cast and Crew Interviews
Deleted Scenes
B-Roll

Reviewer: Chris Hallam