James Hicks

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Telstar: The Joe Meek Story Review

By Rich Cline

Excellent

As chaotic and energetic as a 1960s British comedy, this film traces six years in the life of the world's first truly independent record producer. It doesn't say anything new, but the story is remarkable.

In 1961, Joe Meek (O'Neill) runs his music empire from a flat above a shop in Holloway Road, North London, where his landlady (Ferris) tries to ignore the ruckus upstairs. Joe surrounds himself with beautiful young men that he crafts into pop sensations, reaching the peak of success with the UK and US chart-topper Telstar. But Joe is also a victim of bad organisation, paranoia and depression, which leads him to alienate the talented people around him, including both musicians and his financier (Spacey).

Continue reading: Telstar: The Joe Meek Story Review

The Morning After Review

By Christopher Null

Weak

Lifetime-achievement Oscar winner Sidney Lumet made a lot of great movies. He also made a whole lot of utter crap, and one of the cellar dwellers is this, The Morning After, a Jane Fonda vehicle that alternately insults you and makes no sense at all.

Lumet earns points for starting off with a bang. The movie opens with a haggard Fonda, her feathered hair coming across like a fright wig, rousing out of bed next to a man. She's a little disoriented... who is he? She turns to wake him up, only to find a steak knife jabbed in his chest. But she can't remember the night before! Did she kill the guy? Or is this the most retarded frame-up in the history of cinema?

Continue reading: The Morning After Review

Miss Monday Review

By Christopher Null

Excellent

This extremely dark and disturbing Sundance favorite gives us a relatively simple premise -- screenwriter (Hicks) looks to women in the real world to find the muse for his femme fatale -- then throws us for a loop as the corporate-world woman he finds, his "Miss Monday," turns out to be an utter freak. Andrea Hart's Gloria becomes the center of the film as Hicks's writer spends a day and a night in her house, going through her things, reading her diary, constructing her personality... before a harrowing evening Gloria spends with only herself and her demons. Harrowing in much the same vein as What Happened Was..., though some scenes are alternately underexposed and overexposed, putting a damper on the visual asthetic of the picture.