Fathers and sons united in song. Girlfriends hugging and crying. A lone lad standing post-show, red-faced and awestruck, as a stadium of 80,000 begins to clear out. In a sea of Adidas bucket hats and pints of Guinness, these are the images memorialized, with dramatic flair and vibrant color, in Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, the documentary lionizing the Manchester mammoths’ astonishing, unanticipated 2025 reunion tour.
Though the musicians who frequently declared themselves the best band in the world might be more universally bestowed a different superlative – the band with the most acrimonious breakup – directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, who helmed 2022’s equally sentimental Aughts-NYC indie rock doc Meet Me in the Bathroom, spend little time on it here. The film begins with footage from Rock en Seine 2009, the festival Oasis never played because Liam and Noel Gallagher were too busy getting in a fistfight backstage, but doesn’t disclose what caused the altercation that estranged the band’s founding brothers for the next 15 years – nor does it divulge what mountain-moving event inspired them to reconcile and announce a world tour in 2024.
It doesn’t really matter. It’s clear the fissure in the relationship between the Gallaghers, two infamously egomaniacal and unfiltered rock stars, was inevitable, just as their reconciliation was likely spurred more by the promise of a payday than a sudden change of heart.
At least at first. Primarily a concert film, Don’t Look Back in Anger is most affecting when it moves past Liam and Noel’s first rehearsal – where tension does radiate, as Liam barely speaks to his brother and dips out as soon as he’s finished singing – and into the 41 shows they, founding guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, and the rest of the band played last year. Whatever coldness remained between the siblings in that practice space thaws as they perform, to stunning adoration, for generations of fans across the world.
For those who lost the Ticketmaster war, Lovelace and Southern are generous with the live footage. The anthemic final minutes of “Slide Away”; the bombast of “Morning Glory”; the hopeful melancholy of “Live Forever,” which Liam dedicates to the band’s mentor, Stone Roses bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield, after his death – a barrage of cinematic clips makes clear how Oasis’ music, while almost barbaric in its simplicity, is thus genius in its subsequent universality. Ridiculous “Bang a Gong” rip-off “Cigarettes & Alcohol” distills this phenomenon: Again and again, at the behest of ringleader Liam, fans lock arms and pogo as one to Noel’s blues-rock boogie, a captivating image of rock & roll’s singular unifying abilities. In one of many tear-jerking moments, Noel remarks with admiration that he forgot how much his brother meant to people.
Thoughtfully selected fan interviews work with the live shots to cement the band’s far-reaching legacy. In Wales, a woman connects with her nonverbal autistic son to beloved B-side “Talk Tonight.” In Argentina, football fans transform the Manchester United devotees’ “Wonderwall” into a San Lorenzo fight song. When you fall down, one Korean listener proclaims, most artists try to pick you up immediately; Oasis falls down with you, and then stands back up by your side.
When Liam flees that stiff first rehearsal, Noel frets to his bandmates, “I’m not sure our kid’s enjoying himself.” There’s a hint of sarcasm in his voice; he’s already declared in an interview, “I will not forgive anyone. Ever.”
When the talking head segment returns at the tour’s end, after the duo’s cautious onstage hand-holding has relaxed into brotherly bear hugs, the camera zooms out with a revelation: The Gallaghers are sitting side by side. They’ve been recording their testimonials together, in their first joint press appearance in 15 years.
They’re laughing.
Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger
2026, R, 122 min. Directed by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern.
This article appears in September 18 • 2026.
