REVIEW: Made of Stone

Film critic Alison Devlin, reviews the latest films shown at the UK Cinema Showcase 2013.
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Shane Meadows (This is England) is back, bringing with him an insightful and entertaining documentary about ‘the second coming’ of English alternative rock band – The Stone Roses.

Made of Stone combines archive footage of interviews with the band during their earlier days and the current events that saw the newly reformed group perform live in front of 220,000 people at the Heaton Park in 2012.

While it is entertaining and Meadows captures pleasant moments between the band-mates during rehearsal, you still feel throughout that he is skating over what everyone wants to know – why did they split? What made drummer Reni want to leave? Why did they come back?

Avoiding one to one interviews and instead filling the time with ancient footage and vox pops from the die-hard devotees’, it has to be said that the documentary was purely from a fans point of view.

You can clearly feel Meadows passion for the band throughout, even at one point taking to the front side of the camera himself to express his excitement at his very first The Stone Roses gig.

Though it is brilliant to see how beloved a group from Manchester is, even through Europe, the documentary should have addressed the issues from all those years ago; the unanswered questions like the true feelings of the band and whether think they can still be the most famous band in the world.

Out in cinemas now.

@devlinalison