Telstar (2008)

RATING:	40%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.guardian.co.uk/)

[TELSTAR: The Joe Meek Story]

Shrill and unmodulated movie about an innovator which itself lacks storytelling innovation. The recreation of a past era is anodyne since this movie is more interested in namedropping the pop icons of the early sixties shamelessly without offering any sense of why the social changes these stars heralded were happening. Pop music is presented in a political vacuum as if this were enough for dramaturgical purposes.

This story of the rise and fall of the world’s first independent record producer (Joe Meek) does not get under the skin of the central character as if somehow frightened to defame a now dead man. Because all of the characters are more or less the same, this movie presents a weakly written screenplay that cannot differentiate who from whom; leading to a shallowness of characterization that makes the story somewhat tedious to follow. A pity, since the actual reasons why such a talented man should descend into Phil Spector like paranoia would have been fascinating.

The essential problem with films about talented people is that only those who are genuinely talented can ever make them. Ken Russell’s biopics were such good value for money, for example, because he personally understood the creative process himself and so could depict it visually. At the end of the day, this movie is no more than a calling card from a film director with his eye firmly on a career in Hollywood who wants to prove he can direct. Technically well made but oh so dull.

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