Pirate Radio

A film that could have easily been shipwrecked, Pirate Radio is held afloat by its carefree laughs and blasting tunes.

Based on a true story, the film follows Rock Radio, a rogue music station broadcasting from a ship bobbing off the coast of Great Britain. Although the crew fights the government’s efforts to ban rock from the airwaves, the story veers from this vendetta, celebrating instead the camaraderie and senseless fun on board. Fearlessly captained by acutely endearing Quentin (Bill Nighly), the rowdy DJ clan achieves the goal of delivering what the kiddies really want: 24 hours of non-stop, speaker-thumping rock ‘n’ roll. The scene-stealers are certainly the two dueling DJs: The Count (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), an American broadcaster unequivocally devoted to the music and Gavin (Rhys Ifans), a rambunctious showman in every sense of the word.

Writer-director Richard Curtis’ film is an ode to a time when rock meant everything, and the true love affair was between the fans and their music. With no scruples, no rules and no girls (aside from the token lesbian, Felicity), we revel in the hilarity of the quasi-fraternal gang’s taunting of both one another and the increasingly frustrated government.

The plot is predictable but lovable, the characters a collection of extremes. But then again, Pirate Radio is about fun and the indisputable love of rock for which these bad boys would give their lives. Curtis brings us into a world where even the darkest of problems are solved with a game of chicken, and music is the only law to live by.

So leave your judgments in the present, jump aboard and let the music be your guide—it’s a rockin’ ride.