Review of I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) by Jake C — 04 Oct 2018

You may say I'm the only one, but I find it hard to imagine a time when the Beatles weren't, you know, *the freakin' Beatles*-a point in their career when their name might be misspelled on a marquee, a time when people could question the Fab Four's artistic integrity, see them only as another group of guitar-playing teen idols, think them to be the typical celebrity pacifiers and not catalysts for the intellectual and creative and libidinal liberation of an entire generation.

In his feature film debut, Zemeckis captures the madcap energy and youthful revelry of those earliest Beatlemania days, focusing less on the band-in many ways, their artistic genius had yet to be seen, their musical ingenuity easy to mistake for just another passing fad-than he does on the effect they had on fans.

Here Zemeckis subtly couples the irrepressible chaos of Beatlemania with the burgeoning Women's Liberation movement and with the emergence of anti-authority protests against the police and against parents.

This is set against the angry, toxic opposition of entitled young men and old conservative coots-women in furs and pearls, jerks in leather jackets-who act utterly bewildered as their privileged social station comes under attack.

Although it may not have the same level of inventiveness as the band's best movies the final product is very much in the vein of the Beatles' own filmography, with all the irreverence and slapstick of HELP!.