Something that goes unacknowledged in the sweetly earnest yet appropriately profane Oasis documentary Don’t Look Back In Anger is how the British rock band’s catalog of songs seems especially ready-made for reunion-tour appreciation. Yes, the Noel Gallagher-penned tunes from the Britpop act’s ’90s heyday are pretty undeniable whether experienced on alt-rock radio at the time or classic-rock radio further down the road, but there’s a reason beyond an extended and acrimonious break that their unlikely 2025 return was so rapturously received. In addition to pub-jukebox mainstays like “Wonderwall,” “Live Forever,” and the song that inspires the doc’s uninspired title, album openers like “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” (“I live my life for the stars that shine”), “D’You Know What I Mean?” (“all my people right here, right now…”) and “Hello” (“it’s good to be back,” Gary Glitter interpolation notwithstanding) seem practically designed to soundtrack a swaggering return to the stage after a 15-year absence.
Some fans in the doc make that break sound like an eternity, and doubtless some experienced it that way. But it’s hardly a record for rock-band time off, and honestly, if Oasis had gone on releasing new records in that period, would some of those supposedly rabid fans even have given them more than a cursory listen? Is it possible that Oasis is one of those bands that simply plays better as a nostalgia act, and as such, wound up massively enriching both their bank accounts and their egos by perpetuating their intra-band, intra-family feud?
These aren’t the questions Don’t Look Back In Anger is here to interrogate, understandably. It’s not here to tell the full story of Oasis, either; the uninitiated, should they happen to dip into this feature to see what the fuss is about, will receive the barest of music-light recaps up top, before skipping to the band’s 2009 break-up, courtesy of a fight between brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher at a Paris concert that never happened. Then it’s another decade-and-a-half later, and we’re privy to footage of the band’s first rehearsal footage in the run-up to an agreed-upon world tour.
Whether the Gallaghers are keeping mum (not their strong suit) or the movie is playing dumb, Don’t Look Back In Anger posits to not especially understand exactly how Noel (lyrics, music, sometimes vocals) and Liam (vocals, tambourine, barstool philosophizing) agreed to put their differences behind them. There’s palpable tension in the air when Liam turns up for rehearsal on the second day—and after some hours leaves quite abruptly, as if manufacturing a fit of pique to preempt a genuine row. There are no obvious signs of a loving brotherly reconciliation in those early moments.
Portentous shots of Liam’s unmanned microphone and the capture of classic Gallagher-isms (“it’s a lot of caring to not give a fuck”) don’t give way to a Wibbling Rivalry-style dust-up or a full retrospective (though plenty of old footage pops up). With occasional interview-extracted narration from the brothers, the film pushes forward into the tour itself. Though it’s not exactly a concert movie, with only a handful of songs played close to all the way through, Don’t Look Back In Anger replicates the arc of the reunion shows’ setlist, complete with the biggest hits stacked toward the end, the single nod toward their post-’90s output via “Little By Little,” and the WTF inclusion of “Roll With It.” (Yes, it was a big hit, but there are nearly a hundred better ones.)
This structure is both irresistible and a touch disappointing. The idea seems to be sort of a truncated and annotated set, where each of the dozen or so highlighted songs inspires anecdotes from fans in different cities as well as insights from the Gallaghers themselves, in between performance footage. This is all effective, as far as it goes. Directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern (who also chronicled Oasis’ former rivals Blur in No Distance Left To Run), presumably under the supervision of credited “creator” Steven Knight, find some less-typical angles on crowd footage, with surprisingly ample screentime afforded to fans leaving stadiums in an emotional daze and, at one point, Mancunians who can’t afford tickets gathering on a nearby hill to experience the show anyway. The individual stories are often touching, and the Gallaghers’ interjections are characteristically hilarious. (Liam does a killer minute or two on why the band’s underwhelming stage presence is actually to their advantage.) There are poignant unspoken details, like how the brothers’ appearances, once defined by Liam’s sharply handsome features and Noel’s unibrow-dominated grimace, have converged with age.
But much of the venturing into the crowd, even when it follows some fans home, feels weirdly context-light, and even the jocular Gallagher interview footage featuring both brothers in the same frame are pretty brief. There’s a fascinating bit from the tour’s opening night about Noel feeling genuinely nervous and recessive while Liam slips back into his frontman role with ease, but that kind of specific recollection quickly takes a backseat. Don’t Look Back In Anger is overeager to get to the big-picture stuff.
It certainly has the canvas for it. Fans will probably want to see the movie, presented in an IMAX-ready (and old-TV-footage-friendly) aspect ratio, on a giant screen with a squalling sound system. (Most people will see it on Hulu, where it will eventually stream.) More casual fans, on the other hand, may find it all a bit much, given the repeated implications and then outright statements that Oasis represents nothing less than the concepts of peace, love, and forgiveness in this desiccated world of ours. The Gallaghers do their best to undercut the sentimentality, but even then it’ll be hard not to tear up at the footage of multiple stadiums’ worth of crowds singing along to “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” even if you’ve already experienced it in person. There’s something touching about the rough-hewn brothers espousing the message that all are welcome under the big Oasis tent. But any moments of sharper focus on the complexities of 21st-century rock music relax into an intentionally soft-focused celebration of looking back. Just not in, well, you know.
Directors: Will Lovelace, Dylan Southern
Writer: Steven Knight
Starring: Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher
Release Date: September 11, 2026
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