Mutiny in Heaven: The Birthday Party

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Mutiny in Heaven: The Birthday Party

2023

1h 26m

Documentary

Music

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100%

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12 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

Hailed as "a one band war", The Birthday Party with Nick Cave was one of the definitive post-punk groups and goth rock pioneers, creative and destructive in equal measure. Their incendiary live performances were the stuff of violent, anarchic legend. Featuring a wealth of rare and unseen archives, original artwork, unreleased tracks, studio footage, animation, and told exclusively by the group's members, MUTINY IN HEAVEN is the story of epic struggle, artistic genius and total chaos, bringing the band's own account to the screen for the first time.

Craig Mathieson

The Age (Australia)

Sep 25

3.5/5

Now that Nick Cave’s career as one of Australia’s pre-eminent musicians is well into its sixth decade, this thorough documentary on his late 1970s breakthrough band, The Birthday Party, serves as a telling primer.

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Luke Buckmaster

Guardian

11/03/2023

It’s not just the subjects who rock out but the whole cinematic kit and caboodle, with White imparting a sense that the film, too, is necking bottles, smoking dream pipes and banging around in the mosh pit, soon to wake up with a terrible hangover.

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Richard Whittaker

Austin Chronicle

10/19/2023

3/5

What White captures is the raw yet deliberate, accidental but structured energy of the Birthday Party, and how a certain level of discomfort seemed to fuel their creativity and success.

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Jamie Healy

Radio Times

03/27/2024

4/5

It's early footage of The Birthday Party performing live that makes this such electric viewing, with Cave caterwauling and flailing around like a man possessed.

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Sean Clancy

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

12/01/2023

89/100

It's not for everybody, but for those who are drawn to the Birthday Party's brand of bleak, poetic nihilism, it's heavenly.

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Simon Miraudo

Movie Squad (RTRFM 92.1)

11/10/2023

3/5

An absolutely hectic primer on a seminal punk outfit.

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Ian White

Director

Nick Cave

Self

Mick Harvey

Self

Rowland S. Howard

Self

Phill Calvert

Self

Tracy Pew

Self

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Synopsis

Hailed as "a one band war", The Birthday Party with Nick Cave was one of the definitive post-punk groups and goth rock pioneers, creative and destructive in equal measure. Their incendiary live performances were the stuff of violent, anarchic legend. Featuring a wealth of rare and unseen archives, original artwork, unreleased tracks, studio footage, animation, and told exclusively by the group's members, MUTINY IN HEAVEN is the story of epic struggle, artistic genius and total chaos, bringing the band's own account to the screen for the first time.

Director: Ian White
Producer: Greg Blakey, Ian White
Distributor: Cargo Film & Releasing
Genre: Documentary, Music
Original Language: Australian English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 1, 2023, Limited
Runtime: 1h 26m

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