"How couldꦦ these two idiots become so b🃏loody massive?" asks George Michael, rhetorically, at the beginning of Chris Smith’s joyous docu-portrait of 80s pop sensation Wham!.
In just four years, Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, two teenage buddies from Bushey in Hertfordshire, became a global force in music with hits like 'Club Tropicana', 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' and 'Last Christmas'. Their story is a genuine example o꧂f living the dream, something Smith conveys to a tee.
Tracing the band’s stratospheric rise, Smith (澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:American Movie, Sr.) delves deep into the archives, excavating rare footage of the band performing on their debut Club Fantastic tour in 1983. There are no talking heads. Instead, we get narration culled from audio interviews with Ridgeley and Michael. That the latter passed away in 2016 makes the film’s achievemౠent all the more impressiveꦫ; there are times when it feels like the two former bandmates are in dialogue with each other.
Like Michael and Ridgeley, Smith&r💖squo;s film doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still finds time to tackle more serious topics, from Michael keeping his sexuality under wraps to the boys’ groundbreaking 1985 tour of China, which hadn’t previously hosted a westꦛern pop act.
Best of all, Smith captures the 'lightning in a bottle' nature of Wham!: the fact that Ridgeley was ultra-supportive of his bandmate’s rapidly evolving talent as a songwriter🉐. It’s rare indeed to find a music documentary that isn’t driven by jealousy and in-fighting, but instead brims w📖ith positivity. To borrow from Wham! themselves: fantastic.
Wham! is in cinemas on June 27 and on Netflix from July 5th. For more 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming movies, check out our guide to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:2023 movie release dates
