Telstar: The Joe Meek Story (2008)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is a very quirky film; whether you like it or not, really depends on the mood you are in. In my view it's worth seeing twice before you make up your mind.It did very badly at the box office, which is (in my opinion) more to do with the sophistication and open-mindedness of the British audience, rather than the film itself. It would have been more suited to perhaps a French or Italian audience - as the British audience is not so much into Arty Niche films as Hard Reality or Fantasy.The lead role is superbly played by Con O' Neill, who portrays this unbalanced and complex genius with great skill and imagination.Despite the criticism of his Gloucester accent (one critic described it as Welsh like Rob Bryden), I can tell you that it is very authentic. I spend a lot of time in Gloucester and he sounds spot on. It's a subtle accent to emulate and it is a great achievement to hold onto it throughout the film. The manic scenes are funny, and the tragic scenes are very moving. The final scenes are as good a tragic end as I have ever seen.Perhaps one day this film will get the cult following it deserves - but there will need to be some major expansion of the average cinema-goer's mind to make this happen.

Telstar is the satellite that inspired British music producer and his in house band The Tornadoes to launch the instrumental record which became the first US number 1 hit by a British group.Meek who operated out of the top of of a leather good shop was a maverick like Phil Spector, and just like Spector with a fondness of guns.The film starts and feels like a stage play very much in keeping with its origins as a stage play and low budget adaptation as a film. Con O'Neill (reprising the part from the play) plays Meek, harried, frazzled, on the edge with drugs keeping him going. Kevin Spacey makes a cameo as Major Banks his business backer who keeps the whole enterprise in even keel as we find that Meek is certainly no businessman.Somewhere within the chaos of the upstairs apartment cum music studio Meek who could not read or write music and was ridiculed for being tone deaf managed to produced a string of heats and had major musician working under him such as Ritchie Blackmore, Chas Hodges. I shall omit Screaming Lord Sutch as a major musician though.However the pill popping, plagiarism accusations, arrest for importuning in a public toilet, his falling out with the Major lead to deepening financial turmoil and the falling out with friends and musicians. The hits dried up and in a tragic demise he ended up shooting his landlady and himself.The film by actor turned director Nick Moran is rather messy. Moran does well with a low budget to evoke a sixties atmosphere which is away from the swinging which was so beloved by past filmmakers.Its nice to see support from Spacey, James Corden as well as some of the real life people who associated with Meek turn up such as Jess Conrad.However the film feels overlong and as Moran tries to imbue Meek with some psychological character traits based on his upbringing and his past family life it feels like a failure as it adds little. Many people of his generation had family affected by The Great War or trauma in childhood.I found this a middling film whose kinetic energy runs out midway through and the film starts to drag until the tragic ending.

Picked this up on whim in 2015, as it has Kevin Spacey on the DVD cover, and as you probably know, he is usually excellent. Telstar tells the story of Joe Meek (played by Con O'Neill, who is excellent by the way) the world's first independent record producer. As comical as the on screen action is at times, it's also rather tragic. Personally, I wasn't around during the 1960's, I have to assume the film portrays London accurately during that era. Either way, the backdrop to the film is interesting. It's also interesting to see the conditions under which Meek's hit songs were created, recorded, in a grubby flat above a handbag shop in London. Entertaining from start to finish. One of the best films I've seen in ages. Totally recommended.

Joe Meek was a genius, he was a pioneer of his field. His influence on pop music is still discernible after almost 50 years. Alone Telstar was a breathtaking creation, completely different from the music of its time and from anything else before. This is what made Joe Meek famous. When I first heard Telstar, I was astonished and thougth that this music is not from this planet (just as Telstar was off planet). I assume this movie is watched by people who felt the same and recognized the genius of Joe Meek. However, this movie shows Joe Meek as a homosexual lunatic involved in all kind of conflicts. Many people have similar fate but nobody would make a movie of them. In case of Joe Meek all the negative events shown might have been reality, nevertheless Joe Meek was Telstar, The Tornados, Heinz, The Honeycombs and other successful, great music productions. Why would one wash dirty laundry when there are so many beautiful things to show? This movie is the same kind of miscarriage as Ray. Disappointing, despite of great acting.