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16 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Unjustly overlooked 80's musical, 20 August 1999

Author: Sean Gallagher (seankgallagher@yahoo.com) from Brooklyn, NY

I had just graduated high school(in California) when this movie came out, in the summer of 1986. Given the heavy promotion given it by MTV(I believe they had a contest whose winner would appear in the film, though I may have remembered that wrong), and given that David Bowie, whose music career was on the upswing, had a starring role(along with a mix of musicians like veteran Ray Davies(of the Kinks) and newcomer Sade), you'd expect the movie would be a hit. Instead, it barely made a dent in America(in their year-end issue, Rolling Stone called it one of the hype jobs of the year), and seems to have been largely forgotten(though in an interview with Rolling Stone about a year later, Bowie claimed it was a cult hit). In fact, while star Patsy Kensit has had an erratic career, Bowie continued to make music and the occasional movie, and director Julien Temple, after this and EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY, went back to his forte, music videos, it's sort of ironic that the most successful person to come from that movie is Robbie Coltrane(TV's CRACKER), who only had a small role here.

Why am I boring you all with this? Because ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS is one of the unsung classics of the 80's. Of course, having grown up on old-time musicals(my dad was a fan), I'm probably more receptive to them than the average person seems to be today, but this is one of the best ones of the last two decades. Not only are all the numbers well-written and well sung(in addition to Bowie, Davies, and Sade, jazz great Gil Evans wrote the instrumental score, and Style Council contributes a song. Also, female lead Patsy Kensit sings one, while male lead Eddie O'Connell lip-syncs his numbers), they're also imaginatively staged. A good example is "Motivation," one of two numbers Bowie sings(the other being the title song), which includes parodies of Busby Berkley-type numbers. There's also a wicked parody of teen pop.

As for the story, Temple has the fine novel to fall back on(by Colin MacInnes), and while there's probably too many ideas trying to burst out(teen alienation, racism, "Selling Out"(the name of another song), he juggles them all with finesse. And the cast handles things with aplomb, with the exception of, surprisingly, Bowie; while he's appropriately super-smooth as the oily executive, his voice(intended to be an American accent?) is annoying. But O'Connell and Kensit are both fresh and appealing, Anita Morris and James Fox both play well in their typecast roles(as, respectively, a sexpot gossip columnist and an effete fashion designer), there's a nice turn by Mandy Rice-Davies(who, you may remember, was in real life involved in the Profumo scandal), and a host of others in small but memorable parts(the ones I can remember are Steven Berkoff(BEVERLY HILLS COP) and Bruce Payne(PASSENGER 57) as fascists, and Paul Rhys(VINCENT AND THEO) as a mod). All in all, well worth tracking down.

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13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Exhilarating Adrenalin Rush, 2 May 2001
Author: kryan-1 from London, England

What a Corker of a movie which moves at a lightning pace of youth in the 1950's based on the youth culture book by Colin McInnes. We see the birth of the teenager in Britain wiping away the grey cobwebs of post war Britain and revitalising it with a kaleidoscope of colour. Eddie O'Donnell is the spunky immaculately dressed hedonist who wants to dance and carouse the night away in Swinging London and Patsy Kensit's film debut is superb as Colin'ns(O'Donnel's) sex kitten who's a real temptress. The music score is excellent which interwines with the plot very well and some of London's well known honey pots are featured, like The Wag Club which is sadly no more. Ray Davies actually appears in the film, as does David Bowie and Sade.Not forgetting the great songs by The Style Council and Smiley Culture with an underlying jazz groove by Gil Evans. The Introduction to this movie is one of the best ever and features a cast of thousands. Congratulations Julian Temple on this aesthetic musical delight.

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13 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Brilliant, ambitious film, 18 October 2003

Author: (newchaz64@aol.com) from St. Louis, MO

This film is clearly not for everyone, but it was a major step forward in the evolution of the movie musical, perhaps the first "post-modern" movie musical, looking back to the history of musical film, paying tribute, but also rejecting and replacing many movie musical conventions. It's a brilliant, exciting film, without which we might not have Moulin Rouge today. And even if you don't get it, the music is terrific enough...

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10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
I like this one!, 14 May 2004
Author: d-mael from Langhorne, PA

First, I must respectfully disagree with the other reviewer who hated this movie. It has a complex set of plot lines that deal with a number of issues revolving around the lives of a young up-and-coming "pop photographer", and his love interest -- played by Patsy Kensit. Then, there is the "old queen" (also an unscrupulous real estate developer) who marries Patsy. Now, add to that the ad agency aspect (David Bowie's song and dance routine to "Selling Out" is a classic), plus the racial tensions in 1950's or 1960's London, and you have a multi-layered plot tapestry.

Personally, I don't mind that David Bowie is only in the movie for ten minutes -- I am a fan of Bowie, but this is really not "his movie".

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Much Better than Expected...., 26 November 2003
Author: cinema_universe from NYC & Cherry Grove

With the great era of musicals long past, it was interesting to see how stylized & clever this little "musical" film really was.

The story line was nil, but then great musicals don't need one, anyway. --Not to say that this was a "great musical", but the music WAS pretty good, and the film's use of thoughtful & colorful sets was stunning.

The camera movement, the scene changes, the hypnotic (almost psychedelic) fades, and the simply dazzling use of color, more than made up for the silly dialog and tripey sub-plots.

All in all, a good looking, well-mounted, and (except for the ending) enjoyable experience. The fast pace of the dream-like musical sequences made this a much better film than I had anticipated seeing.

I rated it 9, -mostly for sets, color, music, costumes, & photography.

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9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
A Very British, Pre-"Moulin Rouge" Extravaganza, 8 March 2003

Author: britishdominion from Las Vegas, NV

Julien Temple's "Absolute Beginners" is probably more well known for it's breathtaking and legendary opening tracking shot through a gloriously campy backlot version of London's SoHo District (so influential it even served as an in-joke in Robert Altman's "The Player") AND for the film's behind-the-scenes B.O. failure both at home (where it was trumped up as to herald the coming of the "new" British cinema) and abroad. But upon a fresh look in the days after the visual assault of "Moulin Rouge" and the puffery of "Chicago", smarter DVD viewers will certainly (hopefully) now find "Absolute Beginners". MGM's timing couldn't be more perfect: the film should find an audience that has caught up with the form, patient enough to sit through the razzle-dazzle with a cast that frequently, joyously, breaks into song when the moment is right.

Director Temple - he of the Sex Pistols' "The Great Rock And Roll Swindle", "Earth Girls Are Easy" and a career of 80's short and long-form rock videos - takes what was a very-dead movie genre and breathes life into a freewheelingly complex - perhaps overreaching - story of "England's First Teenagers". The idea is pure Temple: pop art, pop culture and commercialism all served up in a beautiful, thoughtful package if as inherently artificial as the people and era it documents. The film crosses classic kitchen-sink drama and the dreamy ambition of the "youth" pictures of the day - albeit with a knowingly 80's sensibility.

"Absolute Beginners" follows its two young "teen" stars - amateur photographer Eddie O'Connell and the lovely Patsy Kensit as a neophyte fashion designer - as they discover that their blooming talents put them in the right-place-right-time of late 50's London, and that these same talents are a highly desired and marketable currency in the pop idol-crazed Blighty. All of the "adults" in the film (David Bowie as a oily American marketing guru and James Fox as a foppish and callous fashionista are standouts) are the force out to co-opt and corrupt our two young lovers, and their love does get called into question in the pursuit of success and the almighty British Sterling. A sub-plot of sorts involving nasty Steven Berkoff ("Beverly Hills Cop") wedging a "Keep England White" racial cleansing of the soddy London White City ghettos coldly highlights the cultural plasticness of the navelgazing fad-frenzy time, which leads to the film's firey denouement.

And this is a musical! But what a musical it is: each of the picture's numbers is a virtual showstopper set-piece. There's Ray Davies of "The Kinks" as a Landlord in an awesome "Quiet Life" eye-popper that features the Brit-Rock legend chasing his boarders through an artificial three-level house all the while singing and soft-shoeing up a storm; the formerly mentioned Bowie's "That's Motivation!" a hilarious lesson on the evils of mass-marketing; and a wild Jamaican-Jazz fusion fashion show that Kensit makes all her own. The film's musical director was the late Gil Evans, and his contribution gives this film a classy, thoughtful pedigree that the story tries very hard to match. Watch for Sade Adu, Robbie Coltrane, Anita Morris and Mandy Rice-Davies in bit parts.

Yes, the film's serious reach hardly exceeds its glitzy grasp, but it's difficult to fault a movie that attempts to exhume the movie musical, tries to tell a overly complicated tale in which people still break into song, crams the edges of its widescreen aspect ratio in energetic cinematography, colorful scenery and engaging performances by its leads, PLUS offers a great jazzy soundtrack and kicky musical numbers.

A great double bill with this title would be the Cliff Richard artifact, "The Young Ones".

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
A great journey through London, 6 September 2003

Author: christophaskell from Premiere Video (Dallas, Tx)

A fun musical with a lot of energy and great acting, 'Absolute Beginners' will win a place in your heart. This is the sharpest I've seen Bowie in a film, and Patsy Kensit was beautiful as Suzette. A political piece as well as a time piece, Temple captured the feel of a Broadway or West End musical perfectly. A great turnaround for Temple, who really had me worried after directing 'Mantrap'. It is a musical, so liberties have to be allowed, but for fans of the musical this is a great one to check out. Rating: 27/40

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
How can I do other than love this film?, 21 January 2010

Author: James Hitchcock from Tunbridge Wells, England

It is often said that the British just can't do film musicals. That even though we're pretty good at theatrical musicals, the cinematic version is, like gridiron football and republicanism, something best left to our cousins across the Atlantic. This prejudice even survived the award of a "Best Picture" Oscar to "Oliver!", and by the mid-eighties the traditional style of film musical was at a pretty low ebb even in America and virtually extinct in Britain. "Absolute Beginners" was therefore something completely unexpected. It was a British musical which owed nothing to Broadway and very little to the sort of pop-and-rock musicals ("Saturday Night Fever", "Fame", "Flashdance", etc.) which Hollywood had started to turn out in the seventies.

The film was also adapted from an unexpected source; the Colin MacInnes book of the same name about youth culture in late 1950s London. I doubt if MacInnes, who died in 1976, ever imagined that his novel would ever be turned into a musical. The story is set in the long hot summer of 1958. (At least, that's how MacInnes describes it, although Met Office records show that the summer of that year was wet and cool). The main character is Colin, a young photographer. In the original novel he was unnamed, but here he is named after his creator, rather oddly given that the book was not intended to be autobiographical. (MacInnes would have been 44 in 1958, a generation older than his character).

Colin falls in love with Crepe Suzette, an aspiring fashion designer, but she gets engaged to her boss Henley of Mayfair, motivated by career advantage rather than love, as Henley is an arrogant and unpleasant individual, old enough to be Suzette's father. In the book, in fact, the compulsively promiscuous Suzette is also not very pleasant, but here her character is very much softened. The film also deals with the Notting Hill race riots, shown here as having been whipped up by a Fascist rabble-rouser, unnamed but clearly based upon Oswald Mosley. The said demagogue is in league with a corrupt property developer who wants to drive the black inhabitants out of Notting Hill, at the time a very run-down area, in order to further one of his redevelopment schemes.

"Absolute Beginners" was panned by the critics and failed at the box-office. Together with the commercial failures of two other films released about the same time, "Revolution" and "The Mission", it led to a decline in the fortunes of Goldcrest, the major British film studio of the eighties. Some even started talking of a crisis in the British film industry, which had produced so many great films in the first half of the decade. The film was also disliked by literary purists who complained that it was not faithful to the original novel, particularly in the rewriting of MacInnes' ending and the bowdlerisation of Crepe Suzette's character.

And yet I loved the film and still do, even though the critics were partly right. Yes, the film has its flaws. Eddie O'Connell makes an uncharismatic hero, and seems too old for the part of Colin, who is supposed to be a teenager. (O'Connell has faded from view since 1986 to such an extent that I have been unable to find his exact date of birth, but he appears to be about thirty). The storyline does not always flow smoothly, perhaps not surprisingly given that it was the first feature film of its director Julien Temple, thitherto better known as the maker of pop videos and a documentary about the Sex Pistols. As for the literary purists, they are certainly right about its lack of fidelity to its literary source, although in its defence I should say that had it not been for this film I should in all probability never have discovered MacInnes' brilliant novel or his other writings.

The acting, like much in the film, is deliberately stylised. (Those who call it wooden are missing the point). The lovely Patsy Kensit makes a delightful heroine as Suzette in what has been described as her breakthrough role. At the time she was hailed as the "British Bardot" and is still a familiar face, even if she has never achieved her much-quoted ambition "to be more famous than anything or anyone".

Despite its faults, "Absolute Beginners" is a cool and stylish movie. It probably has little to do with the fifties as they actually were, but a lot to do with the fifties as they should have been. It has an immense drive and energy with an absolutely irresistible soundtrack. Modern audiences might be surprised that this is largely jazz based, given that we now tend to look back at the late fifties as the birth of the rock-and-roll era. At that time in Britain, however, before the rise of the Beatles, jazz was still very much part of the youth scene, particularly of the "mod" subculture, rock being associated with the mods' rivals, the "rockers". A number of leading musicians, such as David Bowie, Sade and the Style Council contributed to the film. (Bowie also makes an acting contribution as the property developer Vendice Partners).

I have a personal reason why this film is a favourite. It brings back memories a long hot summer- not that of 1958, when I was not even born, but that of 1986. At the time, I was young and in love and went to see the film with my girlfriend. I remember us coming out of the cinema together on a warm summer's evening, exhilarated by what we had just seen, and walking along the London Embankment, laughing and singing Bowie's great theme song to one another. "As long as we're together, all the rest can go to hell- I absolutely love you". With a memory like that, how could I do other than love this film? 8/10

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Unique Film, 14 December 2001
Author: swift-10 from California

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The over-ambitious "Absolute Beginners" is one of those films that is difficult because it frustrates you of its potential to be excellent. And while it had excellent parts, those parts were better than the whole. The performances were fine, although one never finds oneself caring too much about any of the characters. That point would be irrelevant in some other film. But, in the last thirty minutes or so (at the beginning of the race riots), that caring would be the drive that would keep the viewer from turning it off. While I did not stop the film, I did fast forward it. Ten minutes would have been more than enough, as it never needed to be that redundant. Even at ten minutes, it would have felt tacked on, much less over thirty. It left a bad taste on a film that, so far, was pretty decent. A large musical number at the end would have been appropriate, not a half-hour parade of blood, fire, and broken glass.

But let us draw on some of its virtues, which it has as many as it does faults. The opening shot is wonderful, showing us a colorful "Swinging London" with choreographed movements by the streetwalkers (some of them anyway). The songs, unlike a large amount of film musicals, have been welded with the story. They flow. They need to be there. The songs express what words cannot. The actors SHOULD be breaking out into song. And further than that, they are good. The color is another main enjoyment, as the whole story had to do with glitter, flash, and things that are attractive. Crammed, stuffed with color, as it should be. Examples of this are the opening shot, the wonderful "unveiling" of Suzette at the fashion show, the first club scene, etc. While the characters are very two dimensional, they are well acted, and their motivations are always very clear. Yes, the characters never emerge from plot points to actual human beings, but that is a minor drawback.

The songs. When mentioning "Absolute Beginners," one must mention Ray Davies and the Kinks' number, "Quiet Life." One of the most brilliant musical numbers in the film is not crucial to the story. However, I am most glad that it was left in. Painful, mildly disturbing, and darkly funny at times, it is catchy and simply excellent. The songs performed by the child rock star were quite annoying, but then again, I find a fourteen year old boy singing irritating in itself. "Having it All," as well as Colin's song following, are both very good and, as I see it, essential to the story. "Selling Out" is wonderful, and essential to making the motivations of Colin more clear. The David Bowie number, "Motivation," is more visually stimulating than musically. The song is nothing special, while its Busbey Berkely style complemented by quick editing is the main attraction. "Killer Blow," performed onscreen by Sade (a nice bonus), is a fine song/sequence. Besides it not being available on widescreen DVD, it is a shame that the CD is not available, as it would be a nice listen every once in a while.

It could have been SO much better. It should have been so much better. Whatever made the writers/director feel that the didactic anti-racism message needed to be crammed in at the end I'll never know. (Note: It's not the message I mind a bit, but the cramming in of 30 minutes of yelling and violence. It's a musical, and one which racism wasn't even its main focus.) And the ending (SPOILER AHEAD) about Colin and Suzette back together hasn't any basis on which it should be considered a happy ending. Aren't they, at heart, two different people?

But, if you see it for rental at your video store, do get it. I own it. I just know where to stop the film isn't necessarily at the end credits.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Beginner's Luck. The Soul And Spirit Of Youth., 4 January 2011

Author: johnstonjames from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

absolutely perfect. in my opinion one of the very best film musicals of all time. to quote those that love indulgent hyperbole, "the very best EVER!".

i don't always like movies that are all about the joys of being young and alive, even when i was young i felt old and didn't usually like 'em. i make exception for subject matter when the cinema is this good. especially when it involves Julien Temple.

i've always felt 'Beginners' was an ironic example of the material being far superior to it's source influences. Julien Temple and film critics have often stated the the influences of 'Absolute Beginners' were the films of Vicente Minnelli. that's pretty obvious. but take it from a long time fan of film musicals, this is better than anything Minelli ever put out. not only is it more sophisticated and boast better concepts and ideas, it's technically much better than the old musical film master was capable of.

lemme say this. Eddie O'Connell and Patsy Kensit are perhaps, in my humble opinion, one of cinema's best screen couple and romances ever. EVER. their characters and also the performances resonate with intelligence and soulfulness. something lacking often in the overstated and overworked romances in the popular media.

'Beginners' is such a combination of so many elements that work out beautifully. a thing that often occurs with Julien Temple. Temple's sense of perfectionism never drives anything into the ground or results in overkill. every element blends perfectly. the story, music, cinematography, the incredible performances, all done with such excelled artistry that you would think something would give and overpower the whole. not so. it works out evenly, smoothly and to cinema perfection.

rarely are musicals so entertaining as musicals and also comprise great cinema. as usual everything that Julien Temple does with music and cinema results in cinematic perfection. brilliant.

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