WHAM! (2023)

Using actuality from their relatively short career, this is quite an interesting documentary that illustrates the rise and fall of this duo of childhood friends that started off in a small bedroom in North London and ended up punching well beyond it's weight in the UK, USA and in China too. It uses running narratives from George Michael (aka "Yog") and Andrew Ridgeley and takes us on a colourful chronology of their rise to fame and has accessed a strong selection of archive to support that. It's not one of those films that's constantly interrupted by chats from opinionated music journalists, indeed even the likes of Elton John quote only briefly, and always within the contemporaneous context of the timeline. The two men deliver a commentary that is complimentary and generous to the other - I'd like to know when AR laid his track down, George having dies in 2016, just to see whether the former is a polite response to the latter, or genuinely what was felt at the time. There are plenty of occasions when you do look at the imagery and wonder just what did Ridgely actually do, but the tone of the film and the demeanour of the two together would suggest that, like in many a successful marriage - inspiration and support for one can come in a lower keyed but just as crucial contribution from the more "silent" partner. Also - he chose the skimpy shorts that helped make a star out of him and his nervous, camera-shy, friend! It also features a fair reflection of their rather more substantial back catalogue. I lived through the whole Wham-mania thing as a teenager but had forgotten much of what made them the phenomena that they became. It touches on wealth (or not), pressures, sexuality, angst - but it doesn't jump the gun. It's about the band not the solo artist it spawned, so all of that is sort of left poised. Luckily for director Chris Smith he's got Alex Black as ferret-in-chief of the archive and there's enough new here to sustain an interest in two boys who lived the dream, set some trends, and shook the world - briefly! You don't need to be a Wham fan to enjoy this. It's quite an interesting look at societal issues and the music business in the early 1980s, too.