It's All Gone Pete Tong

This film screened at the Cleveland Film Festival on Friday, March 18. It was paired up with a very funny short called "Winner Takes All". Everyone busted a serious gut about this short. I can't say anything about it else it'll spoil it for you, but look it up.

It's All Gone Pete Tong is a story about Frankie Wilde, a DJ who hit the decks of Ibiza. For anyone who's a club/trance fan, you'll recognize a lot of familiar faces in the film: Pete Tong (of course), Carl Cox (one of my favorites), Sarah Main, Paul Van Dyk (my #1), Tiesto (he looks a lot different on screen) talking about the life of Frankie Wilde.

One of the people next to me commented that this started out like Requiem for a Dream. While its not that severe, this does have heavy drug and alcohol use. This was too much for some people in the audience and they left.

But the storyline is amazing. Give this film the time and you'll see how the director and the actors create a very simple but uplifting story about redemption and change and romance.

The soundtrack, covering everything from dance to the Beach Boys (with an appropriate track at the end) is simply to die for. The film rep said this may not have a soundtrack in the US. I hope not.

If drugs and alcohol use are not for you, I'd skip this film. But if your looking for dry British humor with a ready heartily story along with terrific music, see this film and enjoy, just have some patience, its worth it.

It's all gone Pete Tong is the story about an Ibizian DJ, Frankie Wild (who is a loud mouthed, cocaine addicted party animal). The mockumentary tells us quickly about his rise to fame in Ibiza and how he loses it, literally. Years of doing sets in the loud drug scened clubs are starting to set their toll on Frankie who is losing his hearing much to the annoyance of his agent, who cant seem to get a word of him. Suddenly Frankie loses the 20% of the hearing he has left so he barricades himself away from mankind in his Ibizian villa. It's all gone Pete Tong is hilarious when it's funny and if anyone was going to play Frankie Wild it had to be Paul Kaye. The film slightly slows down in the 70 minute mark, but still i'd recommend it to anyone even if they are not into the clubbing scene. The film capitulates the true meaning of a feel good summer film. 7/10

P.S It's all gone Pete Tong means (forthose of you who don't know) "It's all gone wrong".

Considering the beating this film got in some reviews, I went to see it the other day, not expecting much from it. Surprisingly though, the film was pretty damn good! Paul Kaye (some of you will remember his often hilarious Dennis Pennis taking the mickey out of celebrities at film premiers) plays Frankie Wilde a mega famous DJ who's bringing dance music to Ibiza. All's going well for Frankie, he's rich, successful, has a wife and a string of sexy ladies on the side. All this goes down the drain when Frankie starts to lose his hearing, which of course, is not that good for a famous DJ. Kaye delivers some funny, upbeat lines throughout the film and so long as you don't mind his gurning for laughs, you'll enjoy the flick. Despite his arrogance and dirty coke and drink habits you find yourself cheering Frankie along and when he meets Spanish lip-reader Penelope you almost want him to get his hearing back for good. Although a gag-fest, filled with dirty humour and teenage-boy jokes, It's All Gone Pete Tong is a funny, witty film which will happily fill an hour or two in the coming summer months.

The movie is very good, very well shot and the director deserves praise for his work. Kaye gives a memorable performance. The story is good, with a strong melodramatic theme, as the film is not so much about Djs than about handicapped hearing impaired people. It is sad and sweet at moments with very moving moments. Some touches of black humor, very British, a bit of swearing and two macho crass jokes don't spoil the overall feeling of despair and total compassion you feel for the human beings portrayed. The music is good not so much the dance music but the score. The picture is superb knowing it was shot on digital. It's a low budget movie which looks like a 10 million dollar film. And a meaningful film. Not to be missed. A true achievement.

This film played the second night at Gen Art's 10th Annual Film Festival. I was expectedly waiting for the "big name" films Standing Still and Southern Belles but one of the Gen Art staff recommended I watch Pete Tong. Knowing a little bit about dance music (Moby, Paul Oakenfold, Fatboy Slim) and having watched just a couple of flicks (Go, Groove, 24 Hour Party People), my expectations were low. The theater was packed. Within the first 10 minutes, I was hooked. The opening sequence has Paul Kay (Playing the famous DJ Frankie Wilde) descending from the ceiling of a Ibiza club on a guide wire and then falling into a pool! The music THUMPS THUMPS THUMPS and the theater had the volume jacked so that you could feel the bass and vibrations. The plot is fairly predictable but the main actor does an amazing job. The film is well shot with beautiful colors, but lots of close-ups. Don't sit too close to the screen on this one. The furry Coke Badger gives us a humorous glimpse at the personification of addition. All in all, a fun show with a (Happily) cheesy ending. The film ended up winning both the Best Picture and Audience Awards.