7. 24 Hour Party People
Tony Wilson, AKA the owner of legendary Factory Records and nightclub The Haçienda and the man that effectively brought North-West UK maestros Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Happy Mondays, Joy Division and New Order into the world. The biopic of his life, which stars the brilliant Steve Coogan as Wilson, is a riotous study of his role in driving the post-punk movement and the later Madchester scene. This is one of the most fun "factual" films about music ever made. A psychedelic trip through the mind of one of the most influential men in recent British music history, it's full of humour, intriguingly dark moments and surreal set-pieces (including its infamous finale, featuring a cameo from God Himself...). Coogan is great at its centre, but the real attraction is the story of the incredible bands that Wilson developed. Who wouldn't be attracted to a film that dramatises the nutty drug use of Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder, the chaotically dysfunctional Joy Division and the early optimism of acid house? No-one, that's who: hence the film's nomination for Cannes' Palme D'Or in 2002.