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Oasis' 1996 concerts at Knebworth Castle were always considered monstrous, and they now seem as eerily alien as the Pyramids. A quarter-million people attended, and 10 times that many (about 5 percent of the U.K.) vied desperately for tickets. While Oasis only painted from one small corner of the Beatles' palette, its early albums just happened to master that most salable aspect—a nuanced swagger effortlessly rendered euphoric and universal—the Knebworth footage offers an unparalleled glimpse of the band as a sweeping social force. Even at the time, guitarist-songwriter Noel and frontman/younger brother Liam Gallagher recognized the concerts probably represented their peak, though they'd continue forward another dozen years.
As with producer Asif Kapadia's 2015 Oscar-nominated Winehouse documentary Amy, the never-before-seen interviews in Oasis: Supersonic accompany an immersive multimedia mélange intended to convey a meaning beyond strict reportage. But Supersonic's strict focus on Oasis' finest hours hews more closely to its director's 2012 feature Spike Island: a fictionalized, atmospheric coming-of-age tale set during the legendary Stone Roses gig. Put another way, Supersonic resembles a version of Amy that ends well before her death.
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Oasis' sudden ascent alongside the U.K.'s premillennial turn in the global spotlight deserves at least cursory recognition, and the doc's avoidance of all Britpop contemporaries—Oasis' era-defining rivalry with Blur an especially glaring omission—could only be justified by the presence of Liam and Noel as executive producers.
Although the filmmakers' agreement to interview Liam and Noel separately minimizes the overlapping asides and unprovoked assaults, that comparative professionalism comes at the cost of spontaneity and fresh perspective from perhaps the purest incarnation of the songwriter-versus-singer dialectic dividing their genre since time immemorial. Whether or not each yarn's worth the telling, three times as many assembled stories wouldn't come close to providing the definitive portrait certain to eventually appear with or without the Gallaghers' assistance. Future ocumentarians, please don't put your films in the hands of a rock-'n'-roll band. They'll throw it all away.
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Critics Rating: C+. Oasis: Supersonic is rated R. It screens Wednesday only at Cinema 21. 7 pm.
Willamette Week