It's All Gone Pete Tong Movie Review:


The title is Cockney rhyming slang for "everything's gone wrong"; Pete Tong is a renowned British DJ. So it's no surprise to find this a tale of a DJ whose life takes a terrible turn. What we can't predict is where filmmaker Dowse (Fubar) is going with it. The result is astonishingly energetic, completely surprising and thoroughly moving.

DJ Frankie Wilde (Kaye) rules the Ibiza club scene, the self-described "Imelda Marcos of the flip-flop world", treated like a god by his adoring fans as he indulges in the drugged-out highlife. His promoter Max (Wilmot) is making a fortune off him; his trampy wife Sonya (Magowan) parties harder than he does. Then Frankie discovers that he's losing his hearing, and his life implodes. Nobody wants a deaf DJ. But what else can he do with his life?

Filming in mock-doc style, Dowse takes us on an epic journey to hell and back, with a constant bone-dry sense of humour that's more chilling than funny. He's knowingly skewering club culture--decadent excess, mindless bandwagoning, soul-sucking commercialism--so ruthlessly real that it's both funny and horrific at the same time. But there's a lot more going on; at its heart this is a provocative voyage into a troubled soul seeking redemption, companionship and meaning in a life that's seductively, blindingly vacuous.

Kaye seems completely consumed by this character--he oozes from his pores! And it's an extremely brave performance as he scrapes the depths of hopelessness and then deftly avoids cheesy sentimentality as it turns more buoyant. Of the supporting cast, Wilmot registers strongest with his smarmy, greedy promoter--especially in the film's astonishing final act. And Batarda is subtly sexy, sweet and sparky as the woman who finally connects with Frankie.

Dowse maintains a darkly vicious but affectionate tone throughout. About halfway in we start to worry that he doesn't have a point--the film seems to be sinking into comical-gruesome despair as the humour evaporates. Then the story shifts, and as the film is reborn into something much more powerful, we begin to see and feel everything in an intimate and engaging way. A real stunner.



Rich Cline

Superstar DJ Frankie Wilde (Kaye) is considered the best in the business. After eleven years on the white isle as Ibiza’s king of the clubs, he can’t go any higher. The lord of his domain, untouchable on the decks but after a decade of sound, drink and drugs has taken its toll and Frankie Wilde is going deaf.

The mock-umentary is becoming the comic stable of the music film genre but does ‘Its all gone Pete Tong’ have what it takes to make you dance with laugher?

Charting the fictional life of Ibiza legend of the decks Frankie Wilde, the mock-umentary follow the same type of structure as films like ‘This is Spinal Tap’ and ‘A Mighty Wind’, were stars of the industry reflect on the artist contribution to music as we watch their life unfold before us. This style has been extremely successful and provided the genre with some classics, ‘This is Spinal Tap’ been the obvious example, but ‘It’s all gone Pete Tong’ doesn’t make it into that category, far from it.

DJ Frankie Wilde just isn’t appealing enough to anyone other than dance music fans. The status of Superstar DJ might seem a pretty pointless title for some music purest, but for the legions of fans that flow to the white isle they are the gods of the club scene and are just as important as the people who wrote the original music they are mixing together. The film portrays Wilde as a genius but the problem he lets this title go to his head. With the fame come the excesses of the business. Drugs, women and drink consume his social life as he lives the life of a superstar. While some may argue that this is the stereotype of most people in the music business, there is nothing here that makes him appeal to you in the slightest when things start to go horribly wrong.

Paul Kaye brings this reprehensible character to life that is plagued by cocaine-induced visions, excessive drinking and the fact that eleven years in the clubs has almost destroyed his hearing. The performance by Kaye is not in question. He is an exceptional comedic actor who can portray all aspects of Wilde emotional and physiological journey with ease. In fact he makes Frankie a more watchable character than he could have been but he can’t change the writing of the character completely.

Supporting Kaye is a combination of actors and people from the business. Beatriz Batarda is exceptional as Frankie’s lip reading teacher Penelope. She plays a deaf person superbly but you have to ask why an actual deaf person wasn’t used in the role. Mike Wilmot is good as Frankie’s manager Max Haggar and there are guest appearances from real life people from the dance music world such as Barry Ashworth, Charlie Chester, Carl Cox, Sarah Main and Pete Tong himself.

‘Its all gone Pete Tong’ is a mock-umentary that is very short on laughs. While the story might be interesting to fans of dance music, everyone else will struggle to feel any sympathy for the character or his situation. While the cast do their best it is in the script were the film as gone all ‘Pete Tong’

Jamie Kelwick

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