By Kate Blake- Editor TheEntertainmentHotline

This year the Tribeca Film Festival branched out with their new ON DEMAND program allowing movie fans all over to access their selections of bright and interesting films from your own home. We will be reviewing several of these over the next few days. Our first selection is the music biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. It is the story of British new wave music icon Ian Dury. You may be asking yourself – who the hell is Ian Dury? Well- he was one of the key voices in the UK music scene in the late 70s and into the 80s. He was an amazingly talented entertainer who helped shape the music of the era. He was also an artisit and he did some acting. All of this with a tremendous physical disability which he never let stop him from doing anything.

Dury is played in the film by Andy Serkis ( Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies). His character is not a pleasant person. He is selfish and driven. He came down with polio at a young age and after surviving he spent his youth in a charity hospital that believed the disabled had to fight for ability to be as normal as possible and to push themselves harder than others because nobody would do it for them. A novel concept in today’s coddle everyone era. Ian in real life finished high school and went on to study painting before pursuing a career in music. The movie touches on his life as a musician and his life as a guy with a wife and two kids but nothing conventional in how he approaches the family unit – he and his wife live apart while both take lovers and it is not until many years later they finally divorce. Dury is an unlikely hero for the disabled – he writes a song ” Spasticus Autisticus” which was banned by most radio shows for being insulting- this was the song he was supposed to write to support the United Nations Year of the Disabled and managed instead to just piss people off. Ian was not a very lovable guy- but the film shows he was direct and honest.

Notable performances- Olivia Williams ( Dollhouse) plays his wife Betty who gives birth upstairs while Ian is having a rehearsal session downstairs, Naomie Harris ( Pirates of the Carribean 2 & 3) is Denise his long faithful and suffering girlfriend who puts up with Ian and his antics for way too long, Ray Winstone makes a memorable cameo as young Ian’s father who shows him how to fight and get ahead in the face of bullies. Young actor Bill Milner plays Ian’s son Baxter. We get to see Baxter come out of his shell and grow right alongside his father in the film. I enjoyed the film. The pounding music and driving lyrics were new to me though I have heard his top song Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll many times- I just never knew the story behind it. What surprised me the most was how many of Dury’s songs had a strong rap quality. Rhythmic lyrics, spoken not really sung, driving beat and killer riffs. Top notch music with a story not completely familiar to most Americans. Worth checking out.

Head to the Tribeca Film Festival site for how to view on Demand and where to see the movie in theaters.