Absolute Beginners (1986)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Being a fan of most musicals I expected a fun story with hopefully catchy songs. Alas this outing proved to be a disappointment in more fields than one.The film's story is meant to tell the story of a young photographer's romance with a nightclub singer and his corruption by a greedy advertising agent. And then there's some subplot about racial tensions escalating to rioting. Sadly the story immediately falls flat on impact as soon as the protagonist begins his voice-over of the film's events. The performances of Eddie O'Connell and Patsy Kinset are particularly painful as their romantic chemistry is clearly lacking. Kinset comes off as whiny at the worst times or she is completely uninterested in interacting with her fellow actors. Her big song early in the film is instantly forgettable as she repeats the song's title over and over that it is maddeningly irritating. O'Connell as well is not much of an actor as he speaks his lines with a lack of passion; like just reading the script without emotion. His own singing is also unremarkable like Kinset's; lack of passion or real talent in the art.Terribly unused and meant to be a major player in the film is David Bowie as the corrupt Vendice Partners. Given Bowie's proved acting abilities in the past, the filmmakers seemed to have discarded this detail except for Bowie's songwriting ability and terrific vocals. Bowie wrote the film's title song that plays over the opening credits and is the film's only memorable musical number and has his own musical number within the narrative. Sadly the performance and musical sequence is utterly forgettable after the film's end which is a crying shame for the gravitas that David Bowie brings to his film performances.If you want an example of how not to do a musical, this is a sure bet.

Nineteen year old Colin is trying to find his place in life. He believes in equality for all, regardless of race, colour, creed, sex or sexual orientation. He has nothing against money, but doesn't like what some people have to do to obtain money, or what money does to people. He loves Suzette, and she loves him, but is focusing on her career as a fashion designer. Colin drops his principles to do work for money to impress Suzette, as a photographer. Through this process, Colin finds that he ends up being the public spirit of the London teenager. But that work takes him from his own ideals, from which he may not be able to escape to find his way back to his self and to Suzette...........Somewhere in this pile of rubbish, is a wonderful work of genius trying to get out, and despite the fact that Temple is an artist in his own right,Mathis is a failure of epic proportions.And it's a crying shame, because there are some flashes of genius between the tiresome, tawdry dance scenes, and the first ten minutes really does build you up for something special.And that's the problem, just when you think its in danger of getting boring to the point of wanting to turn it off, a set dazzles you, or Lionel Blair pops up in a cameo, and this is how the film is for it's running time.Kensit and O'Connell are impressive as the Romeo and Juliet of the story, but the addition of some wonderful side characters such as Ed The Ted, and The Fanatic, leave them waiting in the sidelines just looking pretty.And then we have the Notting Hill Race Riots depicted using the medium of dance. Is this a flash of genius, or just pretentious prattle prattle aiming to challenge?It doesn't challenge, it baffles, because something that affected so many back in the fifties, has been resorted to the jitterbug.Like I've said, there are some flashes of genius, but at the end of the day, it just feels too pretentious for its own good.

This is a movie that, more than any other I can think of, is about style over substance. Several aspects of the movie hint at its essential shallowness. First, the director, Julien Temple, had recently gone from working with the Sex Pistols to directing videos for Janet Jackson. This was the era of Janet's big dance production videos and the influence can definitely be seen in the movie. Second, they created an old-fashioned musical out of a book by Colin MacInnes, a radical bohemian English novelist - it's the equivalent of turning "On the Road" into a Disney musical cartoon. Last and probably least, my favorite communist punk - Paul Weller - showed up with his new band Style Council to give us a happy-sad little pop tune about losing your girlfriend.What the movie lacks in depth it more than makes up for in style. The above-mentioned Weller tune ("Have you Ever Had it Blue") is my personal favorite of the post-punk new pop wave of the eighties. Bowie's performance is great; all the musical numbers are choreographed and executed - well - fabulously, from David Bowie dancing on a giant typewriter to Sade just dripping sophistication and sensuality on the stage of a mock-seedy basement nightclub. Even if the direction misses the seriousness of the source material, it really captures the musical essence of each of the many and diverse songs.

A great idea and a huge Brit budget, ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS is so ambitious and so technically well and packed with great 80s Soho jazz musical numbers that it forgets to include the hooks for an audience. It is actually for people in theater and film who love musicals and the techniques. It isn't for the general ticket buying public who expect a conventional story with a structure. The lead actor Eddie OConnell is a bit Ken doll or even Cliff Richard...maybe that is the point but he is lacking in charisma. Visually it is a feast and musically it is very engaging, but like the Minnelli musicals YOLANDA AND THE THIEF or THE PIRATE and the Brit satire Ken Russell musical THE BOYFRIEND or John Waters 1988 film of HAIRSPRAY there has to be a strong core to break though to mainstream cinema goers; otherwise, like those films, it is relegated to cult interest and the 'noble failure' bin. In time it will be a quintessential 80s style musical and we are not far enough away from then yet. It also cost a massive amount and lost it all, killing off the studio that financed the $15m.... ugh. If made today, it would be financed by Absolute Vodka and marketed with panache, finding a huge multiplex audience and making zillions of dollars for all concerned...thus being hailed as a success and a masterpiece.