The Alcohol Years

Carol Morley of Manchester, England, with unabashed narcissism filmed people talking about her youth. She was blond, slept around, drank too much, had wild friends and big boobs and might even be charismatic. Fascinating.

Movie has parental guidance warnings but actually it could let teens live the scene vicariously, from the end viewpoint, so they can do something different with their youth. Morley herself didn't have much parental guidance. Her father killed himself and wasn't around to have any input.

She was a wild girl and now teaches film making. She pulled it together.

There are friends from my youth that I would love to watch a multi-angled analysis of so I don't have any complaints about the concept of the film. A drunk girl isn't necessarily the person I want to see in this much depth though.

I saw this film the other night on the Sundance Channel. In the first ten minutes I said to myself, "this could be interesting". In the next ten I said, "OK, you had a lot of sex as a teenager. I get it. Time to move the film forward, give it some direction, tell a story." In the next ten I said, "Wow, she really isn't going to talk about anything else, is she?" And I spent the remainder of the film wondering how a grown woman could have so little self awareness that she sincerely believes that everything she's ever done in her life is so fascinating that it deserves to be memorialized on film.

The film is a series of interviews which go as follows:

Man 1: You were very promiscuous, Carol. Woman 1: You had a lot of sex. Man 2: Everybody wanted to have sex with you. Woman 2: You were incredibly beautiful.

And that's it. For forty-five minutes. No introspection, no deeper meaning, no plot, no humor, no characterization of anyone or anything except the filmmaker. She sincerely believes that a series of interviews with old friends telling her how much sex she had in the early 80s is, all by itself, an interesting subject for a film. Amazing.

i studied under carol morley for a semester, and she is one of the most interesting people i ever met. her documentary, the alcohol years, is an exceptional documentary. Her style inspired me, as a film student, to switch from fiction and pursue documentary filmmaking. A documentary can be about yourself, and at the same time be interesting and not look like your full of yourself. The Alcohol Years is as funny as it is touching. A definite must-see.

an interesting, if narcissistic, examination of identity. Carol Morley - sister of journalist and TV pundit Paul Morley - returns to her teenage stomping ground in Manchester, putting an advert in the local paper for people who remember her. And so we're greeted with a series of talking heads, some famous (Tony Wilson, Vini Reilly) but most unknown. They paint a picture of the years that the documentary maker lost to alcohol and sex. In fact, although she was an artist and in a band, most of the interviewees seem to remember her for her sexual exploits. We never get more than a glimpse of Morley herself but, as the cast of friends and acquaintances talk into the camera, we're forced to become her. It's often intensely personal and uncomfortable, and sometime voyeuristic to the point that you wonder about Morley's motives. But it's nonetheless an interesting glimpse of Manchester at a time when the Hacienda was empty and the Happy Mondays were still practicing in a garage.

A more realistic precursor to Michael Winterbottom's '24 Hour Party People', this is a compelling, funny, and poignant memoir of Carol Morley's 'lost' years in Manchester in the early 1980's. The story is told through painfully honest interviews with old friends and acquaintances who reveal that the younger Morley was a wild and promiscuous character. Morley herself never appears on screen, a clever device as the viewer is left to piece her story and her character together (although it's also worth watching the DVD as the director's commentary gives Morley a chance to answer back to some of the comments made about her). A beautifully told insight into a fascinating life, time, city and culture.