I am inordinately excited for Pirate Radio, a British flick about a fictional group of outlaw DJs who begin broadcasting from a boat when Parliament bans rock music, for many reasons. Firstly, I adore Bill Nighy, particularly as an archetype of someone who seems extremely at home in his own body, and has gotten better as he's gotten older, particularly by playing cheerful rascals. Secondly, I adore Kenneth Branagh, who as he's gotten older seems to have comfortably discarded his romantic-hero days for villain roles. Thirdly, I am exceedingly happy to see Nick Frost in a role that mixes comedy and drama--I like Simon Pegg, but I want to see more of both him and Frost on their own. And fourthly, I adore Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays the leader of the rogue band of DJs, and anything that inches him closer towards his role as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous makes me extremely happy.
In fact, I feel like the movie looks like it's got some of the same vibe as Almost Famous, though focusing more on the adults than on the kid (though, this being a movie about rock, there has to be one). But I also think the movie captures some of the spectrum of Britishness in the 1960's, which is so much more than simply the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. That tension between, well, tension, and regulation, and control, and the desire for freedom, may be caricatures in the movie, but they're beautifully embroidered ones.