Nick Moran's directorial debut is, in fact, remarkably light until it nears its tragic climax.
Comment
06/19/09
Telstar: The Joe Meek Story (2009)
83
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:19
Rotten:4
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: Nick Moran's excellent portrait of an often forgotten pop legend is as eccentric and chaotic as its subject.
Genre: Dramas
Reviews for Telstar: The Joe Meek Story
Moran’s film is not empty nostalgia. It is not The Boat That Rocked. It should be filed alongside Stephen Frears’ Joe Orton biopic, Prick Up Your Ears, because its breezy exterior conceals a thoughtful consideration of a strange moment in British pop.
06/19/09
Telstar is an embarrassing farrago, an amateurish, incoherent pantomime of a piece, stuffed with interchangeable characters, a sketchy, largely unsympathetic leading role, and - betraying its stage play origins - unspeakably stilted dialogue.
06/19/09
There's plenty for music fans interested in Meek's work, and some Moran visual style does a good job of recreating the feeling of the era.
06/19/09
The film lurches uncertainly in tone from frisky nostalgia to fatalistic drama without really getting under the skin of one of the forgotten pioneers of British pop.
06/19/09
Some nice moments, though not all that convincing in its lament for a great lost talent.
06/19/09
Like Meek's music, it's not much good and definitely not sophisticated, but I enjoyed it.
06/19/09
Telstar is a rambling, chaotic mess that's got missed opportunity written all over it.
06/19/09
Fairly crackles with character and period flavor for its first 90 minutes but is let down by a repetitive and tiresomely maudlin final half-hour.
11/06/08
Clumsily plotted and psychologically messy as it is, Moran’s pop biopic is a ripe bustle of business, given substance and conviction by well-rooted performances.
06/19/09
This is Meek’s show, and as a wild and hostile central character (the bellowed phrase “F*** off” is never far from his lips) he is likely to fascinate and alienate in equal measure.
06/19/09
Nick Moran definitely emphasizes certain characteristics of the idiosyncratic producer over others for affect, but this is still as fascinating portraits in parts.
06/19/09
O’Neill’s performance is spellbinding, with Moran commendably allowing the actor the necessary time and space on the screen to believably cast his darkness upon those around him.
06/19/09
Telstar is still an oddly compulsive story of an exuberant mess of a man who played a key role in British pop history.
06/19/09
An entertaining, energetic and frequently offbeat biopic with a superb cast and a terrific central performance.
06/19/09
Like Meek himself, Telstar draws you in despite its its imperfections, which don't detract too much from a bold take on an undertold and fascinating story.
06/19/09
By the film’s end we feel we have had too much of a good thing – but since that is what the hero died of, it seems an appropriate sensation to leave us with.
06/19/09
Nick Moran's film, based on the stage-play he wrote with James Hicks, is an eccentric, sometimes underpowered but always watchable story about the early-60s prehistory of pop culture.
06/19/09
It’s a solidly-made, enjoyable story that manages to rope in some notable cameos (can anyone spot Jimmy Carr) and shows Moran is a name to watch as a director.
06/19/09
It took Nick Moran the best part of 12 years to get this made. And the end result's screamingly energetic, wildly uneven, gay as a goose and at times, utter genius. As a Joe Meek biopic, it's perfect.
06/19/09
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