Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger captures the euphoria surrounding the band’s 2025 comeback tour, but offers little explanation of the events that led to Liam and Noel Gallagher’s 15-year estrangement, according to a review of the documentary.

The film recalls Oasis’s rise during the 1990s before showing fan-shot footage from a 2009 concert in Paris that was cancelled after a reported backstage fight. However, it does not explain what happened during the altercation, who initiated the brothers’ reconciliation or how the split affected their family.

Instead, the documentary moves quickly to preparations for the comeback tour. During rehearsals, Noel leads discussions about the setlist while Liam arrives later and complains about the soundproofing around drummer Joey Waronker. The tension eases when Liam begins singing, and guitarist Bonehead is shown joking about being positioned between the brothers as a peacemaker.

The review describes Liam’s professionalism as one of the film’s main revelations. He says he has stopped smoking and drinking for the duration of the tour, arguing that Oasis’s songs must be treated with “the utmost respect.”

The emotional impact of the comeback

The documentary is strongest when it focuses on the response to Oasis’s return. It follows performances in Cardiff, Dublin, Manchester, Sao Paulo, Tokyo and New York, featuring fans who describe the personal importance of the band’s music.

One fan has named her dog Bonehead, while a South Korean free-diver says Oasis’s music helped her through depression. Noel Gallagher says he was surprised by the emotional impact of the shows and by what the reunion meant to fans.

The review praises the concert footage, describing the Cardiff performance as electric and the live mix as impeccable. It also highlights Liam’s vocal performance and the crowd’s reaction as the brothers begin the show with “Hello.”

But the review argues that the film’s structure becomes repetitive after the Cardiff concert, which arrives relatively early and could otherwise have served as a natural climax. Later sections revisit similar scenes of fan devotion, while focusing on subjects including a priest discussing brotherly forgiveness and a Manchester Arena bombing survivor reflecting on “Don’t Look Back In Anger” as an anthem of resilience.

Unanswered questions

The documentary does not address the dynamic-pricing controversy that surrounded the tour’s launch. It also does not explore Liam’s criticism of Noel’s absence from charity shows supporting Manchester Arena bombing survivors.

Bonehead is praised by Noel as “the sound of Oasis”, but the guitarist is not interviewed in the film. The documentary also does not discuss the cancer diagnosis that forced him to miss the final leg of the tour, according to the review.

Other potentially significant details are introduced but not explored, including Noel’s absence from several weeks of rehearsals because of a bad back and the fact that the Gallagher brothers’ children met for the first time during the tour.

The film was written by Steven Knight and directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace. It is scheduled to be released in cinemas on 9 September.

For fans who attended the Oasis ’25 shows, the review concludes that the documentary works as an effective record of the tour’s emotional and musical impact, even as it leaves much of the band’s difficult history unexplained.