Fab four fairly fine

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2005)

I remember the thrill of seeing this on its first release in my home town. It was just so FREE. It looked like it was made up as they were making it (it was). The Beatles clearly didn't give a toss about the result and they didn't try to conceal themselves behind a meaningless plot, they sat on top of it.
If anyone wanted to know when the Sixties started to swing, I'd say it was at the point early in this film where they are in a press reception and a journalist asks John 'How did you find America?' - his response 'Turn left at Greenland!'. That's it. England swung.
Here we have alienation, precious television directors, Steptoe Senoir as Paul's 'other' grandfather and, above all, a sense that nothing - absolutely nothing - matters other than the music.
I am not a Beatles nut, and clearly it is only moderate cinema, but it is fun and it is subversive, and that's enough for me right now.