Telstar
Actor turned filmmaker Nick Moran adapts his acclaimed stage play, documenting the rise and fall of pioneering '60s songwriter and record producer Joe Meek.
Actor turned filmmaker Nick Moran adapts his acclaimed stage play, documenting the rise and fall of pioneering '60s songwriter and record producer Joe Meek.
There is a thin line separating genius and madness and Meek straddled it for most of his brief life.
Promiscuously gay at a time when homosexuality was illegal and emotionally volatile with the people closest to him, he defied convention to storm to the top of the charts on both side of the Atlantic in 1962 with the quirky title track.
Yet for all of his chart success, Meek was forever in the thrall of depression and self-loathing, and prone to crippling fits of paranoia like when he became convinced that a rival record label had secreted microphones behind the wallpaper of his recording studio to steal his ideas.
There was almost a sickening inevitably when the producer took his own life with a single-barreled shotgun.
He was 37.
Moran's handsome film is a greatest hits compilation of Meek's final years, opening in 1961 on the streets of London where Joe (Con O'Neill) has installed a recording studio above a leather goods store run by his chirpy landlady, Violet Shenton (Pam Ferris).
Major Wilfred Banks (Kevin Spacey) is the money behind the business and he gets a meagre return from his investment thanks to Joe's band The Tornados - drummer Clem Cattini (James Corden) and guitarists Chas Hodges (Ralf Little) and Alan Caddy (Tom Harper) - who tour with Billy Fury (Jon Lee).
Blond singer Heinz Burt (JJ Feild) catches Joe's roving eye and the producer adds him to the line-up of The Tornados, creating friction with the other members of the group.
The euphoria that greets the release of 'Telstar' is short-lived.
A French composer files a plagiarism lawsuit, preventing Joe from receiving any royalties from his musical masterpiece.
The threat of financial ruin nudges him to the brink of self-destruction.
Telstar cannot completely break free of its stage origins, with large sections of the film consigned to the claustrophobic confines of Joe's studio.
However, Moran attempts to open up the play with scenes of swinging London life that capture the fashions and prevailing moods of the era.
O'Neill's incendiary performance galvanizes the entire picture, oscillating wildly from malicious and bullying to playful and pithy.
With the lead actor dominating every frame, supporting performances jostle for attention but no one shines.
Moran doesn't shy away from depicting Joe's sexuality, whether it be him scouting for cheap thrills in a gentleman's toilet or a brief sex scene with Heinz.
The soundtrack jives to the songs of the time, with a cursory nod to the present with Duffy's cover version of 'Please Stay' by The Cryin' Shames over the end credits.
Release Date: Friday 19 June 2009
Certificate: 15
Runtime: 119mins
