Stupid

Rating: 4/10 (16 August 2015)

I was brought along to see this with some relatives. They had drank the Kool-Aid, like most people had at the time, that there was something necessarily interesting or profound about a garish vehicle for a musical based on a bunch of Beatles covers.
The movie itself was, ehh, it more or less succeeded in what it set out to do. I mean, it really wasn't a terrible movie; the cover songs were decent, the acting was okay, and the choreography and photography and art direction all paints a superficially believable picture of some young guy's coming-of-age experience hitch-hiking around the late-60's UK.
The key word is "superficial," though. It's all fake as hell beneath its cutesy candy coating. There's barely any sense that we're getting to know any of the characters. Every situation is just a contrived backdrop for another Beatles cover done by what sounds like an endless line of 90s alternative rock has-beens who impart a sedate, simplified feel to the classic songs.
The ending of the movie is worse than just the sterile sum of its parts though. It's actually sad in a way I'm not sure the filmmakers intended: the poor guy who was at the forefront of this epic musical journey ends up doing what? Working in a damned factory the rest of his life! I got the strong impression that we are to understand that what we saw him experience will be by far the most interesting thing that happens to him in his entire life, while everyone else seems to continue with their little adventures.