Ashkan Kazemian "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.

Benjamin Cox I was more than pleased to see Blur being honoured at the 2012 Brit Awards with a Lifetime Achievement gong. In the UK, it's easy to recall the recent Britpop battles between them and Oasis and the reinvention of the band into indie darlings and their subsequent break-up and reformation. But alongside the usual rock-and-roll story is a selection of cracking tunes from an era when British music really did rule the airwaves.In case you've been under a rock for the last twenty odd years, Blur were a four-piece band from Essex led by singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Formed in 1989, the band had some small initial success before drifting off the radar as musical tastes changed. But in the mid-90's, they become one of the biggest acts in the country and became engaged in a vicious feud with Oasis, a rock band from Manchester. But as each band member became consumed with their own demons, the band began to fragment and drift apart only to reunite and begin playing again which would lead to a triumphant return on the biggest musical stage of all - Glastonbury..."No Distance Left To Run" (named after one of their songs) covers Blur's journey from art college students to stadium legends, via a number of interviews with the band mixed with footage of past and present performances. For fans of Blur, this is simply brilliant as it captures the energy of the group's live appearances as well as the dedication of their still-fanatical fans. But the interviews with the band focuses mainly on Damon and Graham as they were the driving force behind the band as well as part of the reason for their eventual demise. With Damon hooked on heroin and Graham a lonely alcoholic, the band had nowhere to go and so they each went their separate ways. For me, the best moment in the film is their reappearance at Glastonbury and the emotional impact of that night is clearly etched on Damon's face as tens of thousands spontaneously burst into song.While not as detailed as the documentary behind another of my favourite bands - the epic Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers doc "Runnin' Down A Dream" - there is a sense of things not being covered in as much depth as I would have liked. Damon's relationship and break-up with fellow musician Justine Frischmann is barely covered as is Graham's solo career and as I've eluded to, Dave and Alex don't get nearly as much screen time. But despite the fact that the band have probably had their hand in somewhere, this remains a strong account of one of Britian's biggest and best-loved bands of the last twenty years.

paul2001sw-1 Blur were a pop band, influential in the "Britpop" movement celebrated by the press, and briefly the most famous band in Britain. Eclipsed by Oasis, they descended into turmoil and drugs, but continued to make interesting music; I was never a fan, but can acknowledge their interest in musical experimentation. After eventually splitting up, they reunited to play some widely acclaimed comeback gigs last year, and this documentary follows this tour while recalling the band's history. And it's actually a fascinating story; not too self-aggrandising, it's a tale of four mates who became inadvertently famous, and an insight into how people deal, or don't deal, with such a transformation. At one point, one of the band members refers to a documentary about the band Metallica, which revealed it's members to be self-obsessed, business-oriented and utterly unappealing; by contrast, Blur all seem very human, even front-man Damon Albarn. But it's shy guitarist Graham Coxon who steals the show, he seems the unlikeliest of pop stars, which explains a lot of why he found his fame so hard to deal with. I'm still don't like the music that much; but having seen this film, I kind of like the band.

Framescourer 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