Oasis: Supersonic

Studio: A24
Mat Whitecross

Oct 25, 2016 By John McShane Web Exclusive

Seeing the subjects of a music documentary listed as executive producers is often a red flag. The additional access that comes with the cooperation of the Don Henleys and Robbie Robertsons of the world has a price: you’re going to hear a whole lot of self-aggrandizement, you’re going to be spared the stories that paint our subjects in too negative a light, or both.

In the case of the Gallagher brothers, however, the sight of their executive producer credits (separate, obviously) on Oasis: Supersonic assuages any of those concerns. The two creative forces behind Oasis, through their interviews and through the wealth of archival footage dug up by director Mat Whitecross, create a system of checks and balances on one another. Noel and Liam are only too happy to point out each other’s shortcomings as a band mate, musician, songwriter, and brother, and the self-aggrandizement is so over the top that it grows almost charming as the film goes on. You could create a dangerous drinking game centered on the number of times either of them calls Oasis some permutation of “the best fucking band in the world”, often in interviews conducted before the release of their first album.

Whitecross deftly uses the same documentary style that his executive producer, Asif Kapadia, used on his two recent triumphs, Senna and last year’s Oscar-winning Amy. No talking heads are ever shown on camera; home movies, TV appearances, and a number of other sources handily document every step of the band’s rise to fame. And anything they don’t have footage of (sadly, most of their public brawls) is depicted through slightly busy but diverting animation.

In fact, the film works as a sort of companion piece to Amy, tracking a recent English musical phenomenon who found rapid success but may not have been fully equipped to handle the scrutiny and pressures that came with that success. Where Amy is played as tragedy, with her very public death looming over even the happiest moments, though, Supersonic focuses on the steady rise-and-rise of Oasis, cutting the timeline short at the band’s massive 1996 shows at Knebworth Park. It’s an interesting decision, showing the band only in the ascendant or triumphant, but it pays off in creating a feeling of celebration throughout. You can’t help but root for these belligerent, confrontational delinquents to make good.

And your enjoyment of the film does ultimately come down to how amusing you find Liam and Noel, even twenty years past the peak of their international stardom. For as crass as they’re both wont to be, they’re both endlessly clever and deceptively self-aware. For every time they mock one of their best friends for succumbing to nervous exhaustion, they’ll immediately follow by pointing out how awful they themselves probably were to be around in the first place. This doesn’t mean the whole journey is a laugh (drug problems are frequently referenced, and it’s pretty difficult to watch Noel humiliate Michael Hutchence at the Brit Awards a year and a half before the INXS singer’s suicide), but the relative honesty of the brothers keeps the stories both lively and grounded, as when the two of them describe the night that Noel cracked a cricket bat over Liam’s head during the recording of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?; their accounts are surprisingly not as contradictory as you would expect. (Incidentally, if any of this appeals to you, do yourself a favor and check out Danny O’Connor’s Upside Down: The Creation Records Story from 2010; the final quarter of the film is basically the Noel Gallagher show and he does not disappoint). Perhaps the Amy comparison is slightly unfair, as this film aspires to something more modest than Kapadia’s hit; but what it does aspire to be – a forum for a couple of rock’s more unlikely wits and raconteurs to throw some good-natured mud and brag about past exploits – is nothing to be dismissive of. Here’s hoping for a sequel covering the more-contentious years to come.

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