When is a documentary not a documentary? In the case of Made Of Stone, it's the entire second half of the movie, when it drops the pretence of being a factual behind-the-scenes story and just becomes an elongated music video of The Stone Roses performing a Best Of compilation.
Up until then, we're given a chronologically shuffled peak into the mind-set of one of Britain's most influential bands. Starting off in 2011 when the band announced they would be reforming for a set of comeback gigs, we're then whisked back to 1982 when they first formed. We then continue to bounce back and forth between 2011/12 with the band practising in a middle-of-nowhere cottage for their gigs, and back to the 80s and 90s to chart their rapid rise to fame and even more rapid self-destruction.
Director Shane Meadows (This Is England, Dead Man's Shoes) is clearly giddy from being involved in the reformation of one of his own cultural icons, and his joy is intoxicating for the watcher. It spreads even further as die-hard fans tell their life-stories while queuing up for a one-off free gig, with The Stone Roses album quite clearly the soundtracks to their lives. Unfortunately it is this undying love that ultimately becomes the movie's own downfall.
Despite having full access to Ian Brown and co., Meadows never fully utilizes his position, never getting a proper Q&A session with of any of them, more often than not cutting to a decades old interview of the shy-but-egotistical stars. While these old TV appearances are both subtly insightful and often very funny, they're not representative of who these men are anymore. Cutting between the edgy, vitriolic performers back in their hey-day, to today when they enjoy nothing more than a nice cup of tea is all well and good for compare-and-contrast, but without a knowing what makes these men tick today as 50 year old rock performers, we've nothing to compare-and-contrast to.
Fans of The Stone Roses will undoubtedly have a great time (and should add an extra star to the above score) but everyone else will wonder why the film cut to, admittedly gorgeous, footage of a stadium gig just as the documentary was starting to get interesting.
