Brian Epstein gets a biopic that’s TV-movie basic

Almost anyone who grew up with The Beatles knows a few key things about their manager, brian epsteinSubject of new biopic “midas manYou might know that he ran a popular record store in Liverpool when he first saw the Beatles perform at the Cavern Club and realized it was his destiny to manage them. You almost certainly know that it was Epstein who created the Beatles’ image, taking four scruffy working-class rockers in black leather jackets, dressing them in collarless gray suits and giving them those famous moptop haircuts – the look that Created thousands of screams. Or the visionary way in which he led the Beatles’ international career, striking a deal for them to appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Or the fact that Epstein was gay, a fact he kept very secret.

If you’ve ever seen footage of Brian Epstein, you know the most impressive and, in a way, most charming thing about him: he was a straight-laced British gentleman, with a steady gaze and understated charm, Who spoke in a voice of silky aristocratic polish (the product of years of private school). He was as conservative in his business conduct as the Beatles were rebellious and cheeky.

If you know any of this, you might want to check out the legendary anecdotes packed into “Midas Man” (which the director, Joe Stephenson, and the screenwriters, Brigitte Grant and Jonathan Wakeham, turned into a rather entertaining TV-movie. Introducing the ensemble). And, of course, you want to see who Brian Epstein really was – the man beneath the image, whom the film presents in dutiful tabloid detail. Still, there is some TV-film pretentiousness in it too. Even the sketchiest biopic made for 80s television was always about the “dark side,” because that’s where the drama is supposed to be.

In “Midas Man”, we get a glimpse of Epstein’s secret gay life in Liverpool (picking up men at different locations in the middle of the night, at one point engaging a robber who threatens to blackmail him). And we see how her emerging awareness of her secret side makes her traditional Jewish parents, beloved Queenie (Emily Watson) and desperately angry Harry (Eddie Marsan) uncomfortable. Later, when the Beatles become famous and Epstein moves to London, we see Brian’s liberated but problematic relationship with a not-at-all nice American actor named Tex (Ed Spielers), and we see his increasing reliance on self-medication. Let’s look at: the glass of whiskey he always has in hand, his growing cocktail of amphetamines and barbiturates (so he can go… and then go to sleep). But even if all of this is true, just presenting this thing seems pretty…standard.

The film’s star, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, is a charming actor (best known for his work in “The Queen’s Gambit”) who plays off the clarity of Brian’s intelligence, and his passion for the Beatles as a reaction to their magic. Which he changed. In a sort of equation – how to bring those girls to a packed crowd at the Cavern Club on a global stage. He had seen it all already. But I wish Fortune-Lloyd looked more like Brian (he’s taller, darker, and more raw), and he gives more of Epstein’s almost painfully velvety delicacy.

“Midas Man” has a troubled productionWith a revolving door of directors and one particular problem, you won’t be able to see beyond a modestly budgeted early-Beatles biopic. It seems that many of the film’s investors assumed that it would include original Beatles songs – but, in fact, the producers never obtained the rights. So the only songs performed by the Beatles in the film are the Hum covers (“Please Mister Postman,” “Money,” etc.).

Sorry, but I could tell this to investors. In what universe would Apple Corps Ltd. or Sony Music Publishing license the use of The Beatles’ music for small-scale independent production? The brilliant 1994 early Beatles biopic “Backbeat” faced similar obstacles, but wrested artistic advantage from it (which it could because the film was only made in Liverpool and Hamburg). But by the time “Midas Man” reaches the moment when the Beatles become famous, you feel the absence of their music, as if scenes have been cut.

Finding actors to impersonate the Beatles is almost always a difficult endeavor, but I thought these actors did a reasonable job – Blake Richardson replicated Paul’s smile and cockiness and cherubic stubbornness with gusto, Jonah Lees Ended up vulnerable under John’s hostility (although he’s very young! – couldn’t they have given him a lift?)

After seeing them for the first time backstage at the Cavern Club, Brian says, “You were of mAh-Wellus,” which leads to much mockery of his classy behavior. But his loyalty is real. When it seems the Beatles can’t find a record company to sign them, he perseveres, and gets an audition at Parlophone, a label that specializes in comedy. There, he has to win over the house producer, George Martin, played by Charlie Palmer Rothwell, who looks so much like Martin – and imitates his subtle brilliance and the Mona Lisa’s screams so excellently – that he elevates the film and, In a weird way, though, it hurts a little. Rothwell takes a few minutes to remind you what a biopic looks like when it lives up to the gold standard of authenticity. The rest of the “Midas Man”…not so much. (Jay Leno as Ed Sullivan? We get the concept, but it still goes like this…huh?)

That said, “Midas Man” is never unwatchable, and it reflects something about Brian Epstein that is honest and affecting. His devotion to the Beatles, and his devotion to the business of making them even greater than Elvis, is so impressive that he appears to be a man living his dream. Yet keeping her romantic life in the closet pains her. He has his own hookups (and he doesn’t feel guilty about his sexuality), but his society’s intense intolerance means that’s completely impossible for him. Happen With someone. And so the prison Brian finds himself in is one of spiritual isolation. He has no family of his own and he desperately wants a family. The Beatles are like family in a way, and among their growing list of artists is the fabulous Cilla Black (Darcy Shaw). But they cannot fill that lack of loneliness. So when John, shocked by the controversy over his Beatles-is-bigger-than-Jesus comment, tells Brian in 1966 that he wants to stop touring, it’s as if Brian is being thrown off the train of his existence. Used to be. ,

“Midas Man” makes us feel for Brian. Yet the film is very concise about many things. It shows us the exterior of their actual townhouse in London, but what about their hobbies? His taste in films? give us Some? Beyond the scenes whose quality is on the nose. In the last part of the film, we got to see how Brian’s relationship with the Beatles developed. “Midas Man” implies that once the group finished touring, they almost no longer needed Brian; It was not so.

And in the end, the film doesn’t venture too far to the dark side. Brian Epstein died of an accidental drug overdose on August 27, 1967. He was 32 years old, and sitting on top of the world. Still, there were a ton of ups and downers in his system. It was one of those overdoses that had the full resonance of slow, unconscious self-destruction. The “Midas Man” should not have settled things by keeping that chapter of his life a mystery. Brian Epstein is a watchable, useful, in many ways more than threadbare biopic. Let’s hope that one day (perhaps in Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles movies?) his behind-the-scenes talent and highly civilized joy and suffering will get their just due.

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