Review of Telstar: The Joe Meek Story (2008) by Mike M — 08 Jun 2009

In places, "Telstar" betrays its theatrical origins, yet the path is smoothed by Moran's obvious affection for, and fascination with, this particular chapter of pop history. A script full of enjoyable 60s jokes - about Adam Faith's boat and a certain Merseybeat combo Brian Epstein is touting - is given further oomph by wry, knowing 21st century casting.

.. The film works best evoking the interiority of an individual who lived entirely within a self-created universe, hiding himself away between headphones, sunglasses, a wall of sound; it's telling that a partition should prevent producer and musicians from seeing eye-to-eye during the recording process, and rarely outside of a vampire movie can so much have been made of the prising open of a window, the letting in of the light.

"Telstar" revives some great music, but it's alert to an even greater tragedy: that of a man whose sounds travelled across the universe, abandoning him to the discord in his own head.