the audience applauded

Purely Joyful Movie!

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

"No Distance Left to Run" is a documentary about British music band Blur. The film starts with the band reuniting for a series of live dates, about seven years after breaking up, which was mainly because of the disagreements between singer Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon. The documentary then begins to tell Blur's story from their beginning in the late 1980's until their breakup in 2003 and their reunion in 2009.The documentary is both informative and entertaining. It gives a lot of information about Blur's influential role in the "Britpop" movement in mid-1990's and the band at its height of commercial success with the 1994 album "Parklife". The documentary says how the band then shifted towards more rock-orientated music. This gave guitarist Coxon a more prominent role in the band, but can be said to have marked the beginning of the band's troubled relations with each other, which ultimately led to Coxon's departure after "13". He only appeared in one song in the band's last album "Think Tank", released in 2003.A good point of this documentary is that you see the situation the band went through from the viewpoints of all the four members. The role of bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree was often overshadowed by Albarn and Coxon's divisions, but this documentary tells how much they also put into the band. Both Damon and Graham also tell their own version of the band's breakup, allowing the viewer to decide for themselves who was right and who was wrong. The documentary tells a little about their private lives as well, but only as much as it was directly related to the band's career.One thing I got from, and liked about, the documentary, was that despite all the band went through, they decided to come back together. And also through the years, they got to know and better understand each other, to admit to their mistakes and embrace each other again.

Covering the comeback gigs of 2009, No Distance Left To Run also looks back at the story of Blur. The tale is told with some fairly candid up-to- date interviews with all four of the band and with a certain amount of honesty although the film strikes me as vaguely hagiographic - the band have obviously sanctioned the film as well and take the opportunity to get things off their chest and wax sentimental.I would have liked to have seen more contemporaneous footage from the first half of the 1990s. It would also have been to this film's benefit if we'd been able to see more backstage, fly-on-the-wall cuts from the 'comeback' concerts, instead of the arty, wistfully slo-mo accounts of the gigs. Still, that's the film and will appeal to those who count themselves fans of the band. Additionally, I loved the use of Vaughan- Williams (Serenade to Music and Lark Ascending) as it seemed entirely in keeping with not only the sentimentality of the film but the story of the temporary English cultural renaissance which characterized the band's golden period. 5/10

'No Distance Left to Run' is a sentimental journey through Blur's beginnings, success, disillusionment, re-invention, arguments, break-ups and the emotional reunion and gigs of summer 2009.This documentary is fantastically shot, with intertwined footage from the band's 1990's Brit- pop haze. The interviews with the band, although not altogether open and revealing, do illustrate somewhat the band's dynamics and demons they each faced.Blur have always been a special band for me, a band which defined and re-defined the 1990s and early 2000s. This documentary is a superb representation of their chameleon-type talent: a band who were not afraid to take risks. Unlike their old adversaries, Oasis.The film illustrates Blur as an utterly original band, whom I am sure, will be remembered in many years to come, as one of the most influential bands to come out of England of the last thirty years

Just been to a preview of the new Blur documentary "NO DISTANCE LEFT TO RUN" ... and I must say that I was pretty impressed with it ...The film directed by Dylan Southern & Will Lovelace traces Blur's history – through their own words. It's a warts and all look at the dynamics of the band, relationships, gigs, successes and failures - right from their very early days up to when they split up and then their triumphant reunion in 2009 when they headlined at Glastonbury.The Blur band members (Damon Albarn - Singer/Guitar, Graham Coxon · Guitar, Alex James - Bass, and Dave Rowntree - Drums) give exceedingly honest accounts of their feelings towards each other, their emotions, their ambitions, the stories behind the songs / albums, their personal lives, the split-up and the reunion ... all interlaced with great gig footage and behind the scenes "never seen before" footage that really draws you into the inner circle of the make-up of the band The advent of "Britpop" (which Blur started) is also covered very well as well as the Blur vs. Oasis much media-hyped "Battle of the Bands" This is a very interesting film - and it's great to get an inner perspective of what motivates / drives bands such as Blur in this "fly on the wall" way - as well as getting the real take on what the creative influences were behind many of their songs / albums This film is a "must see" event for any Blur fans ..."NO DISTANCE LEFT TO RUN" comes out on 19th January 2010