OASIS: SUPERSONIC (2016) ****

I wasn’t really a fan of Oasis till I saw them on a triple bill with Spacehog and The Black Crowes.  From then on, I was sold.  Even before that, I was sort of mesmerized by the offstage antics of the brothers Gallagher.  Their volatile relationship almost always preceded the band, and the agitated pair’s interviews together were often hilarious and fun to watch.

Oasis:  Supersonic chronicles their rise as one of the greatest bands of the ‘90s.  An ordinary documentary would’ve been content to show the band’s rags to riches story through talking head interviews and performance material.  Lucky for fans of the band, and lovers of documentary cinema, this is anything but ordinary.

Instead, we get an amalgam of insightful, vastly personal home movies and electrifying concert footage.  Throughout, the band members are heard on the soundtrack in brutally honest and revealing interviews that act as a firsthand account and oral history of the band’s formation and rise to stardom.  The way the home videos and new audio is synched together gives the illusion that the band is coming together before your very eyes.  It’s like you’re a fly on the wall witnessing the birth of Oasis.  

You couldn’t have asked for a better script.  The brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, who are at once explosive and confrontational, but also immensely loyal and supportive, grind out numerous gigs in relative obscurity.  One fateful night, they meet the head of England’s hottest label, who signs them on the spot.  In a matter of months, they take the world by storm, touring the globe, and selling millions of albums along the way.  Director Mat Whitecross blends all the footage and audio together in such a way that it makes it feel like you’re seeing it unfold as it happens, which is fascinating.  

Whitecross doesn’t shy away from the darker side of the band.  Their drug use, excess, temper, and propensity for fighting is not shied away from.  We see them acting cocky and brash, with attitude to spare in interviews.  We see some of the various personnel changes, and a bit of Liam’s habit of walking off the stage in the middle of gigs, but Whitecross chooses not to portray the band’s ultimate downfall.  Instead, he ends the movie when the band is at their zenith, playing a massive concert for a quarter of a million people.  

Maybe it’s better that way.  Many lesser movies would’ve been happy to trot out the sordid details of the band’s demise.  Lesser documentaries would want to assign blame for the implosion of the band.  To pick apart what exactly went wrong.  Not only does Oasis:  Supersonic choose to end on a high note; it makes you feel like you were a part of something.  In short, this is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time.

Noel gets the best line of the movie when he says, “I want the severed head of Phil Collins in my fridge by the end of the decade!”

AKA:  Supersonic.