It's All Gone Pete Tong (2004)

It's All Gone Pete TongAny music that you need to be near-death in order to listen to cannot be that good for you.Mind you, it's not the mollies that are ailing the DJ in this dramedy, well not entirely.Informed by his doctor that he is slowly going deaf, cocksure DJ Frankie Wilde (Paul Kaye) refuses to listen to him, continuing to abuse drugs and carrying on with recording his new album.When he finally bottoms out, Frankie gets help from a lip-reading instructor (Beatriz Batarda) who shows him how to make music through the use of sight and touch.A darkly humored character study of an unlikeable jerk that also happens to be the quintessential EDM DJ movie, this Canadian-made Independent film strikes the perfect balance between goof- ball antics, deep-seated personal issues and a sick soundtrack.On the bright side, as a deaf artist you no longer have to listen criticism anymore.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

With It's All Gone Pete Tong, director Michael Dowse gives us a funny, original and heartwarming mockumentary. It's All Gone Pete Tong tells the story of a DJ who is addicted to drugs and alcohol, yet people call his music brilliant. Years and years of playing next to speakers have done considerably damage to his ears leaving him deaf. His career ends and he secludes himself in his house. People think he has gone insane, until he meets a young woman who is also deaf, who teaches him how to read lips. They fall in love and he gets his career back by using the vibration of sound to record new music.The film is character centric, as we follow the main character from stardom to his falling and rise again. When we are first introduced to Frankie, the main character, he is an egocentric drug user. Qualities that usually are liked in people, but as the film goes on he loses all of these things and he get to know Frankie on a more personal level.The scene involving his kick of his drug addiction is both hilarious and frightening. Michael Dowse disguises a lot of dramatic tension and themes under a comedic tone. Drug addiction, disability and infidelity are all present in this film, but Dowse uses them in a comedic way that it doesn't seem out of place with the rest of the film.Paul Kaye is tremendous as Frankie. The entire film rests of his shoulders and he pulled off a comedic and depressing performance all in one. The entire soundtrack, with the exception of some classic scores, is mainly techno. It fits the theme and story of the film well. I believe the use of classical was a creative choice by the filmmakers because Frankie uses vibrations from the sound to create music, much like Beethoven did with his piano. I immediately saw a connection between the two and when classical music began playing it confirmed it.It's All Gone Pete Tong is a comedic film that not only has laughs, but life lessons as well. Many of its themes are multi-layered as are the main character's conflicts. I had never seen or heard of this film before, but am glad that we were able to watch the entire film.

Imagine 'Spinal Tap' meets 'Kevin & Perry Go Large' and you have pretty much summed up this mess of a film.And it starts so well, interviewing legit DJs and dance music moguls about the imaginary legend DJ Frankie Wilde. It sets to be a truly ingenious spoof on the age of electronic music, but then it starts downhill from there. The editing is so screwed up, that half the film is cut to look like a mockumentary style film with talking heads, and the rest is shot like your regular cinema comedy flick with panning angles, and camera work that has clearly been decided to fit the piece not vice versa. It also doesn't help that the film is completely scripted (and not very well at that) so the whole effect looks very false.The film's redeeming second half in which it battles with Wilde's deafness sensitively and thought provokingly almost drags the film up to a decent standard, with a decent film twist and a feel good feeling, but you can't help feeling that it could have been done a lot better, and not as rushed.However, the film does have some good features, for instance Paul Kayes is brilliant as Frankie, becoming the character instantly, and rattling off a number of great one liners like a pro. He is probably the films strongest point.It also has decided not to just opt for the stereotypical Ibiza feel of partying, drugs and Britishness, although it shows this side it also shows a beautiful, poignant and Spanish side to the devil's isle.I liked this film because of my love of dance music and Ibiza, however as a film standing up on its own it inevitably fails and probably has a future destined to the bargain bin section of HMV.

'Pete Tong' is a movie that admittedly grew on me as it went along. I really wasn't getting into this movie, which is about one of the top DJs in the world, and his reaction to becoming deaf. GREAT subject matter. Wasn't quite sure about why I didn't get into the movie as much as I could have at the beginning. Maybe it was because I really didn't care for a character that was filthy rich, takes lots of drugs, parties all the time and is generally scummy. I'm sure that's it. But as we go along, and as he is more accepting of his hearing loss and what to do about it, he really started to grow on me, and I was sort of cheering at the end (but booing at the very end though, the ending sucks). I have no idea who this Paul Kaye is, but let me tell you, he has the most riveting blue eyes I've ever seen, so it's next to impossible to forget someone like him, he makes his character (actually named Frankie Wilde) someone you'll remember. He's very good in this role, and I would like to see some more of him. The supporting cast is alright I suppose, but not really memorable. As a partially deaf man, this was not necessarily the best movie about my condition. I actually prefer DEF, which was a short about a fully deaf teenager wanting to become a rapper. This is a somewhat okay alternative I guess.