Andy Serkis’s riveting tour de force dominates Mat Whitecross’s fascinating biopic of 1970s punk star Ian Dury who achieved stardom despite childhood polio and, reportedly, brought the phrase “sex and drugs and rock and roll” into common English parlance.
Serkis is quite extraordinary, segueing from portraying Dury as rocker, rioter and roué to dazzling surreal sequences when the character is made up to resemble Joel Grey’s larger-than-life master of ceremonies in Cabaret. He makes the movie one to watch even if you originally had no empathy with Dury himself. As music biopics go, it is a reason to be cheerful.
