Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger review – emotional documentary glosses over the hard stuff
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“The little things that used to annoy us about each other have all gone away,” says Noel Gallagher of reconciling with his brother, Liam.
“It’s not a power struggle any more.”
The scene comes towards the end of Don’t Look Back In Anger, a sentimental and affectionate portrait of the band’s comeback tour in 2025. But it’s about as deep as we get into the band’s 15-year hiatus.
In an opening montage, we hear how Oasis conquered the world in the 1990s with hits like Wonderwall and Roll With It. As their fame grew, so did the brothers’ animosity, until the party came to an abrupt halt backstage at a gig in Paris in 2009.
Fan shot footage shows the promoter on stage, informing the crowd that the concert is cancelled following “a huge fight together in the dressing room”.
“The band doesn’t exist any more,” he announces, sounding more irritated than sad.
According to Scottish singer Amy McDonald, who was also on the line-up, the altercation was seismic. “Liam smashed Noel’s guitar, huuuge fight!” she tweeted from backstage.
The film, however, never tells us what was said. Nobody explains the fall-out. We don’t find out who instigated the rapprochement, nor do we hear how it affected their family.
Instead, we cut to rehearsals for the comeback tour, with a caption informing us the brothers “didn’t speak for 15 years”, and an implication that all the wounds have been miraculously healed.
Tantalisingly, the first song they practice is Columbia – a fan favourite that never made the tour’s setlist – but there’s a tension in the room.
The band, under Noel’s instruction, is piecing together the setlist. Liam won’t arrive until later in the process, and no-one’s sure which Liam they’ll get.
When he arrives, he seems fantastically grumpy, complaining about the sound-proofing panels that have been placed in front of Joey Waronker’s drums.
“They’re already giving me the hump,” he huffs.
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But when he steps up to the mic, the band relax. Guitarist Bonehead – who’s strategically placed between Liam and Noel – beams from ear to ear.
A couple of hours later, still in the middle of a song, Liam waves goodbye and casually strolls out of the rehearsal space.
“I’m not sure whether our kid’s enjoying himself,” Noel says to his bandmates.
In a voice-over, Liam reveals, enjoying himself wasn’t the goal.
“If you’re not on it, chaos can ensue,” he says, adding that he’s given up cigarettes and alcohol (the intoxicants, not the song) for the duration of the tour.
“These songs, they need to be treated with the utmost respect.”
Liam’s newfound professionalism is probably the biggest revelation in the documentary, scripted by Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight, and shot by directors Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace.
To their presumable dismay, there are no scenes of the singer quitting the tour to go house-hunting; throwing snooker balls at Blur; or starting a fight on a cross-channel ferry.
Instead, they complete rehearsals without incident and rock up to Cardiff’s Principality Stadium for their public reunion.
As the big moment looms, everyone limbers up in the corridors like middle-aged dads getting ready for a Park Run. But when they hit the stage, it’s electric.
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Liam grabs Noel’s hand and thrusts it into the air, they launch into the opening chords of Hello, and the crowd practically explodes with joy. As the gig continues, they dance and cheer and weep.
During Slide Away, a man sinks to his knees and sings the lyrics, his hands clasped together as if in prayer. When the gig ends, cameras capture a young fan in an awe-struck stupor, unable to tear himself away from his spot on the stadium floor.
This is where the documentary excels – capturing the sheer surge of affection that greeted Oasis’s return. We visit shows in Dublin, Manchester, Sao Paolo, Tokyo and New York – and every one has a fan with a personal story to tell.
One woman has named her dog Bonehead. Another is a Haenyeo – a South Korean free-diver – who says Oasis’s music helped her out of depression.
Noel, in particular, is blindsided by the impact.
“The gravity hit me of what it meant to people and it took me by surprise,” he reflects. “I have to say it actually knocked me back.”
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Structurally, though, the film has a problem. In a biopic, the triumphant night in Cardiff would have been the final scene – the moment of resolution after 15 years of pain. Here, it comes about 40 minutes into the action. Every subsequent concert just rinses and repeats the same story.
The music is still thrilling. The live mix is impeccable. Liam sounds incredible. But Southern and Lovelace are left flailing around for a story.
In Manchester, they focus on a priest delivering a sermon about brotherly forgiveness. In London, they follow a survivor of the Manchester Arena Bombing, who reflects on the way Don’t Look Back In Anger became an anthem of resilience.
But the film sidesteps the fact that Liam spent the mourning period criticising his brother for his failure to appear at charity shows supporting the survivors.
It’s not the only omission.
There’s no mention of the dynamic pricing row that overshadowed the launch of the tour (although Liam is heard apologising for the lack of “cheap seats” during one of the concerts).
And while Noel praises Bonehead’s contribution to the band, calling him “the sound of Oasis,” we never hear from the guitarist; and the film never addresses his cancer diagnosis, which forced him to miss the final leg of the tour.
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Sometimes, the filmmakers hint at uncovered stories. Noel mentions missing weeks of rehearsals because of a bad back; and its revealed that the Gallagher brothers’ kids met for the first time on the tour – but, for some reason, those threads are left un-pulled.
Clearly, a decision was made to concentrate on the music. The cameras don’t (or weren’t allowed to) follow Liam and Noel off stage.
Their joint interview provides a few highlights. Liam’s riff on Mick Jagger’s creaking limbs is worth the price of admission alone. But you get the feeling that everyone’s on their best behaviour for Disney Plus… unless you count the copious swearing.
That said, if you attended any of the Oasis ’25 shows, this is an incredible souvenir of all the tear-soaked euphoria and musical communion that accompanied their comeback.
And, of course, it works as a very effective trailer for the band’s much-rumoured return to Knebworth next summer.
Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger is in cinemas from Wednesday 9 September.
