cross-posted from: feddit.uk/post/19011163
This biopic of The Beatles‘ manager Brian Epstein ends with a famous quote from Paul McCartney: “If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian.” It’s both the raison d’être for this moderately entertaining but hollow film and, perhaps, the reason for its downfall. Midas Man is so busy hitting the familiar beats of the Fab Four’s incredible rise that it never really burrows beneath Epstein’s skin.
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As the Beatles’ popularity explodes, Midas Man follows Epstein and the band to America while paying lip service to other Merseybeat acts he managed, most notably Gerry And The Pacemakers. Director Joe Stephenson steers the story with brisk efficiency – no small feat given this film’s bumpy production. Shooting took place in fits and starts across nearly two years following the departure of two previous directors, Jonas Åkerlund and Sara Sugarman.
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The result is passable retro fodder with a glaring hole: a lack of Beatles songs. Presumably because these were impossible or too expensive to wrangle, we have to make do with snippets of Black’s biggest hits and the Fab Four covering Barrett Strong’s ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’. John, Paul, George and Ringo did indeed record the soulful rocker in 1963, but it’s hardly in their top-tier. Midas Man has some empathy for its subject and a warm performance from Emily Watson as his mother Queenie, but no real curiosity about what made him tick. For this reason, it ultimately does a disservice to both Epstein the manager and Epstein the man.