Most of the movie is Shane talking to a few different people over a drink or two. He is definitely not well and it is like watching someone in hospital on their last days.

I can understand Shane and his wife wanting to share a few more stories and it does seem like many of the songs and the whole updating of Irish folk that the Pogues were part of has been under rated. It was good to hear about that but It is hard to watch.

Fairytale of New York is a great song but you know what I"ve never listened to the whole thing and never tried to decipher what it is about. It has always been just a few fragments of heartfelt emotion that seems to fit together well and it seems like commercially it did the trick for Shane and his band.

I'n glad I have a bit more background but fear Shane is not long for this world.

I'm not so sure what they were going for here. The honestly is refreshing and you see what Shane is really like which is a bit of a bully. A sort of plastic republican IRA wannabe who was born in England whether he likes it or not. The only person who stood up to him was Gerry Adams who is likeable and comes over as wise.

Depp was unbearable and it seemed like he was trying to put on an Irish accent.

Even Brendan Behan softened up as he got older and proclaimed that:

'The older I get, the more I see sense of my grandmother's statement: 'Do you know the difference between having an Irish Republic and being a section of the British Empire?'

• 'No,' says I, 'what is it?'

• Confessions of An Irish Rebel, p134 (1965)

At times it almost felt like the editor was going out of their way to tank the movie, because some of the choices were too much, and the jarring cuts between styles and animation and music tracks that would only play for a short while and at inconsistent volumes got exhausting.

BUT: Shane McGowan is so interesting a subject - and the music of The Pogues so damn good - that this remains an engaging and sometimes emotional watch despite sometimes not great editing. Mild spoilers, but the ending scenes were particularly effective.

I loved the brutal, sad honesty of the idea that MacGowan isn't going to give up his heavy drinking, as so many documentaries about addiction end with fake optimism about going clean and getting one's life back on track after the credits start rolling. I don't like it in the sense that it means his health could deteriorate further, but I do appreciate how honest and sad it was, when so many similar documentaries would try to force some hope into the ending.

Also heartbreaking yet beautiful was footage of MacGowan singing with Nick Cave on stage, another legendary musician with a troubled past filled with tragedy and drug addiction who seems to have gotten his life back on track. Cave seems to have kicked his vices, is still recording some of his best music ever (Ghosteen is very good, Skeleton Tree is phenomenal),and to boot, looks about 15-20 years younger than MacGowan despite also being born in 1957.

It's a sad way to end a 2-hour movie, but dammit if it isn't powerful.