Gary Numan: Android in La La Land (2016) User Reviews

Pretty good stuff, even if you're not much of a fan

[sourpussss · 7/10 · 26 July 2017]

Numan turns out to be a lot more interesting than I recalled, and his music certainly has held up in ways I wouldn't have imagined. The documentary does a great job of letting you into the world of an introverted hermit, who somehow married one of his fans and that turned out to be a really good thing. It's overlong by about 10 minutes, but the part about his current work provide a pretty impressive display of artistic firepower for someone 30 years from his celebrated work, and there are some surprises about the early stuff too. This is a really solid music doc, something you should enjoy even if you're not a fan of Gary Numan's oeuvre.

Covers ground that other numan documentaries don't

[rhysseddon-88973 · 8/10 · 16 March 2018]

I am a big Numan fan but whether your not a fan does not really matter, their have been other documentaries about him rise, then fall, and then a slight more rise again. But this covers the ground more about how he met his wife, how she had a huge impact on his life and music, and the making of splinter. This isn't totally about music it's more about gary numan as a person and how he is a family man, very heartwarming.

Brilliant!!!

[garethcrook · 8/10 · 28 August 2021]

Released in 2016, this documentary now feels like a jumping off point for the Numan's current story. It's charts Gary's life and career amazingly well. It's not easy to pack this much into a documentary and do it well, but this really is beautifully put together. Gary Numan is an unlikely star really, but a deserving one and if you're not utterly taken with him by the end of this film, you really are missing something. Numan is now in a late career purple patch, but here we get a detailed run through how this has been possible. It charts a period where he and his family are looking to relocate to America, with a view to break that market, reignite his career, maybe get into soundtracks. There's plenty of history too though to give context to this new venture. Numan was a pioneer. Those early hits, the look, but stumbling on such an era defining sound and the fame and fortune at just 21, well we all know how that can go. Big houses, fast cars, it was all a bit much for fairly reclusive Gary. Struggling with the fame though wasn't going to be a problem forever. Music culture moved on and left him behind, but he never stopped recording, self releasing and now finds himself in a better place. Musically and personally. Here though he's recording Splinter with a label, the 2013 album that's kick started his career with a bolder darker sound. His writing process is fascinating. Both methodical, but wide open for experimentation, happily making mistakes, finding his way through to something that clicks. It's certainly a story with some dark moments. An Aspergers diagnosis, misunderstood and mistreated by the music press, mounting debts, troubled pregnancies, depression. It makes it all the more enjoyable to think of the current success and the stability and love that the family clearly have. His wife Gemma is a pivotal part of the story and Numan's life. The organised anchor to his more blinkered world view. They're a team, a bloody good one and she quite rightly gets the screen time she deserves. It's a packed 90 minutes. A captivating life, told with a real heartfelt honesty. Numan's released several critically acclaimed albums since the one documented here, including the last two that have seen his star rise even further. He's touring this year. I'll be there. I'm very excited. Watch this, you'll want to be there too!

Must-see for any Gary Numan fan

[paul-allaer · 7/10 · 28 July 2022]

As "Gary Numan Android In La La Land" (2016 release; 85 min) opens, it is "October 2013, Los Angeles", and Gary Numan is getting ready to perform at a sold-out show. We then go to "One Year Earlier, Deep In the English Country Side", and Gary is hanging out with his family (wife and three young daughters) as Numan tells us that he wants to move to the US with his family, more specifically to Los Angeles, where he once lived in the 1980s for a while. We then go back in time even further, to his commercial peak years in the late 70s and early 80s. At this point we are 10 min into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is co-directed by Steve Read and Rob Alexander ("Off the Rails"). The documentary is remarkable on several levels, none more so that the reclusive Gary Numan seemingly gives unfettered access to the film makers into not only his working life (he is working on what would become the 2013 "Splinters" album), but even more so into his personal life. Most of the documentary was filmed in a 12 month period stretching Fall, 2012 to Fall, 2013 and covers the family's move to LA and how they adjust there, and then how everything leads up to the release of "Splinters" and the kickoff of the correlating world tour. Along the way, Numan openly discusses his many ups and downs over the years, including the painful falling out with his dad, and dealing with depression. Let me state upfront that I am about the same age as Gary Numan, and that my first time seeing him in concert was September 28, 1979 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London (with OMD as the opener). I've seen him multiple times since, including all of his appearances in Cincinnati (where I live), most recently in 2018.

"Gary Numan Android in La La Land" was released in 2016 but really covers events from 2012-13, yes pretty much a decade ago. 2013's "Splinter" was universally hailed. Since then, Numan's profile has only risen, with the 2017 sequel "Savage" being his first album to reach the top 3 in the UK album charts, and to reach the US Billboard 200 at all, in 35 years! This documentary was "suggested" to me based on my viewing habits, and is currently streaming on Paramount+, where I caught it just last night. If you are a Gary Numan fan, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion. You won't be disappointed.

Wow

[craigycriggle · 10/10 · 6 February 2021]

Such an amazing insight into Garys life and some behind the scenes of working on Splinter :)

Is Numan Really Human?

[strong-122-478885 · 5/10 · 12 March 2018]

This 85-minute celebrity-documentary takes a "warts & all" look at the rise, the fall, and the eventual music-career resurgence (in La-La Land) of synth-pop android, Gary Numan.

And, the question that continually comes up throughout this presentation asks - "Is Numan really human?"

Through interviews, stills, and archival film-clips - Gary Numan (who, next to Kraftwerk, and Brian Eno) is considered to be an electronic-music pioneer.

In this program - Numan's musical ambitions are discussed and debated at great lengths.

Anyway - As far as this documentary's entertainment-factor goes - It certainly had both its equal share of good moments, as well as its not-so-good moments, too.

A more boring entry in this genre

[goods116 · 5/10 · 24 September 2021]

I'm a huge 80s music fan (new wave especially) and see all the documentaries, and have seen many others. This one is among the more boring ones. Disappointing.