The long-awaited reunion of Liam and Noel Gallagher, and Oasis’ historic Live ’25 world tour, is captured on film as it happened.
“When Oasis split up, everything went to shit.” So asserts a typically erudite Liam Gallagher in Don’t Look Back In Anger over shots of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Theresa May, and other lowlights of the years since he and brother Noel’s acrimonious 2009 split. Did the break-up of a Britpop band actually break the world? Of course not. But did their return last summer — tambourines, bucket hats, elongated vowels and all — start to make it better? Documentarians Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, alongside writer Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), certainly think so. And they make a hell of a case here.
There’s been no shortage of blockbuster concert movies in recent years. The likes of Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Beyoncé’s recorded tours have all thrived in a landscape where the communal escape live music provides has breached monopolistic ticket sellers’ containment. What sets Don’t Look Back In Anger apart is the way it so lovingly, holistically captures the Live ’25 phenomenon as it happened. It’s a mercurial blend of introspective rock-doc and immersive concert experience boasting near-Get Back levels of “I can’t believe this footage exists” moments. (Liam’s first rehearsal arrival feels, in several senses, biblical.)
A rollicking paean to the unifying power of music.
From early-doors rehearsal-room reconciliation to final-night ‘Champagne Supernova’ stadium singalongs via pun-stuffed police briefings, sledgehammer-subtle sermons on forgiveness (a rare, over-scripted misstep), and a slew of memorable encounters with passionate mad-fer-its from Burnage to Brazil, Don’t Look Back In Anger indelibly crystallises a moment when doing the Poznań and belting out ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ with fans of all ages, nations, and backgrounds genuinely felt like the answer to modern society’s collective malaise. That the cinematographer likes of The Brutalist’s Lol Crawley and Moonlight’s James Laxton are behind the cameras, reverently framing moments of chaos and cathartic release in emotionally charged close-ups and awe-inspiring wide shots, certainly doesn’t hurt.
As anyone who’s seen Lovelace and Southern’s past films about LCD Soundsystem, Blur, and New York’s turn-of-the-millennium indie scene will be well aware, the doc-making duo have a gift for taking cinematic snapshots of a cultural landscape and, within that, intimate portraits of their subjects. And while occasionally the scope of the duo’s work can compromise its depth (Noel and Liam’s much-hyped first joint interview in decades, while a sweary delight, could have absolutely used more of the time elsewhere spent labouring a deep-sea-diving metaphor in South Korea), this is such a rollicking paean to the unifying power of music that — in the spirit of the Gallaghers themselves — any minor foibles will be forgiven.
An epic summer for Oasis fans becomes a euphoric cinematic experience. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely, maybe the decade’s best concert movie yet.
