Live Forever Review

Documentary about mid-90s 'Cool Brittania'.

by Alan Morrison |
Published on
Release Date:

14 Feb 2003

Running Time:

82 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Live Forever

Even back in the mid-90s, the whole 'Cool Britannia' thing seemed more of a media invention than an actuality.

This rather unfocused documentary suffers from a similar problem. It comes along with a pre-prepared agenda - in music, art, fashion, film and politics, Britain suddenly became a world superpower of popular culture - but doesn't construct an argument of any substance from its messy collection of talking heads and clips.

Theres also a fair bit of revisionism going on, particularly when claiming that this most apathetic period of youth culture actually had a political backbone (aside from New Labour bandwagon-jumping).

Some interviews are entertaining (it's clear who was front of the queue when brains and personality were given out in the Gallagher household); others seem to be included just because the filmmakers felt obliged after recording them (3D from Massive Attack, Ozwald Boateng).

Neither convincing nor enlightening.
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