As I have been out of town for a week I am way behind on reveals from my list. Out of the last eighteen, four more of my choices made the cut. I did have one of today’s pair…
A Hard Day’s Night is some kinda perfect. As popular as The Beatles already were when they set out to make their debut and as even more impossibly famous as they were about to become, they could have tossed off just about anything for the cinema and it would have made plenty of cash in 1964. Happily the taste of the Fab Four and their management reached for something more. Being fans of
”The Goon Show” they opted for something that was more akin to the anarchic, cheeky fun of The Marx Brothers than trying to appear cool or romantic. John, Paul, George and Ringo wandering about London ahead of a television performance is all the plot needed, though they threw in Paul’s fictional nefarious mixer of a grandad (Wilfrid Brambell) for good measure, all guided by the hand of Richard Lester (
The Three Musketeers, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). Oh, and there are some songs. Beatles songs.
It was fifth on my ballot, good for twenty-one of its 170 points.
Tom Hanks’ directorial debut,
That Thing You Do!, is set during 1964, the year of
A Hard Day’s Night, following a fictional garage band that almost accidentally cuts a hit record and finds themselves quickly thrown into the fringes of the system, only to collapse under the weight of their one hit.
One-Hit Wonders, or at least
One-Hit One-ders, would have been an apt, punny title. But the title of that catchy single is even better. That song, written by Fountain of Waynes’ Adam Schlesinger, is rather brilliant. It had to sound of the period - which it does - had to be catchy enough to be believable as a hit record – totes – and had to be good enough that you wouldn’t tire of hearing it a dozen times during the film – I never do. The details are all fantastic, the sense of humor and hope are charming and tangible, and it is perfectly cast, especially Tom Everett Scott and Steve Zahn. Even before I was in bands myself, I knew this was authentic stuff. After being in bands I can attest it is almost documentary-like in capturing the dynamic and egos of any and, really, every band.
One of the most effortlessly entertaining, endlessly quotable, and compellingly rewatchable movies I have come across,
That Thing You Do! was seventh on my ballot, accounting for nineteen of its 123 points.
Another fictional band, this one set in 1980s Dublin, highlights John Carney’s
Sing Street. In addition to being a movie about a garage band coming together it also uses another favorite genre of mine, the coming-of-age school tale. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo is just right as the shy, sensitive boy overwhelmed when changes in the family finances throw him into a tougher school run by the Christian Brothers. While dodging bullies and trying to adapt to the new strict rules he develops a mighty crush on a slightly older neighborhood girl, Raphina (Lucy Boynton). On the spot to impress her he awkwardly blurts out that he has a band and would love to use her as a model in a video. When she agrees he must quickly will it all into existence, both put a band together with classmates and somehow write a song. With some guidance from his older brother (Jack Reynor) and a bit of luck, he just may pull it off. Lovely film. It was my fifteenth choice, eleven of its 94 points.
I also had John Carney’s
Once on my list. Before he set his sights on filmmaking, Carney played bass in the Dublin rock band The Frames, founded by Glen Hansard (
The Commitments). After directing a few of their music videos Carney left the band to make films. After some small indies got him some notice his third feature,
On the Edge, was financed by Universal and starred Cillian Murphy. But he truly broke through with
Once. A simple and affecting tale of a Dublin busker, Glen Hansard playing essentially a cinematic funhouse version if himself had he never succeeded, and a Czechoslovakian immigrant, Markéta Irglová, who briefly enter each other’s lives thanks to music. Like
That Thing You Do!, its central song, “Falling Slowly”, is perfect enough to hear again and again in the feature and love every time. That moment in the music store that it becomes a duet gives me goosebumps every single time I watch it.
Carney makes lovely films about musicians.
Once (#25),
Sing Street (#40), and
Begin Again (#89) all made the countdown, and frankly
Flora + Son is good enough to have joined them. I limited myself and made room for just two of them on my ballot. I had
Once at eighteen.
That makes eleven of my choices as we come knocking on the Top 20. Of my remaining fourteen I expect seven of them are locks, two or three more have a slight shot of still showing, and the others have no chance.
HOLDEN’S BALLOT
3.
Pennies from Heaven (#56)
5.
A Hard Day’s Night (#23)
7.
That Thing You Do! (#31)
11.
This is Spın̈al Tap (#55)
13.
A Star is Born (#43)
14.
Hair (#47)
15.
Sing Street (#40)
17.
Amadeus (#97)
18.
Once (#25)
21.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (#69)
25.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (#74)
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