This was an opportunity somewhat missed. The overall look of the film was beautiful – the settings, colours et al managed to capture the look of the 1960s – and I believe that some period footage was sewn-in. Some tremendous character actors were incorporated – and we could have seen a wonderful evocation of the classic Ealing comedies. (JJ Field would make an amazing Alec Guinness should there be any reflection on either his life or the Ealing genre/back-story.) However, the film was confused courtesy of its attempt to incorporate contemporary, hard-hitting episodes (and a range of expletives that would not have been heard in the 60s). Con O'Neill is a stage performer, conceivably, rather than a film actor. As such, we saw too much of his emotions – I feel it would have been better to have shown greater restrain in his performance, leave areas of Meek's character understated and unsaid – as, I suspect, would have been the case in the 60s. As such, the film could have maintained its period feel, keeping the comedic use of an amazing cast of character actors and eliminate the necessity to show Meek's fall in all its detail. Less may have been more… Lastly, in the credits, it sadly mentions one of the protagonists having committed suicide – he 'hung' (sic) himself. Shame that it could not have been grammatically correct in such an English film.

I watched this film a while ago with my brother and mum.We were looking forward to watching it as we thought it would be an interesting, entertaining film. We were however, disappointed.From the start of the film the pace was I felt rushed in parts, it seemed to lack direction and 'flitted' from scene to scene with little explanation as to why. Prior to watching the film we(my brother and I) knew a little about Joe Meek. I didn't do any reading before watching the film to find out anything else about him.The film focused on Two aspects of Meek's portrayed personality- 1) homosexuality and 2) Frequent temper tantrums- and that's it , thats the basis of the story. There's a brief appearance of singer's Billy Fury(the tornado's were at one time his backing group) and Gene Vincent. The portrayal of Vincent is in my opinion 'cringeworthy' and disappointing.In short, my advice is watch it if you're absolutely bored senseless and you can think of literally nothing else to do.

This is a cinematic adaptation of the life of Joe Meek.If you don't know who Joe Meek was, lets just say that he was a pivotal figure in the evolution of popular music whose innovative production techniques and zeal for creation laid the path for a lot of the things that are recorded and broadcast today.This movie by Nick Moran may not be factually accurate let me say that upfront. So don't treat it as a dossier on Joe Meek's life or that of his colleagues. This film is however a tribute to Joe Meek and certainly has some of the things that Joe was great at: Music, Inspiring people and being a sensitive soul.Good performances from everyone. Thats one thing about British cinema. You can be assured of superior acting than their American counterparts. That's a given.I've put an open letter from Patrick Pink in the forum below in case you may care to read it. Its his less than happy reaction on the film.However, this film will certainly help spread the legend of Joe Meek and Telstar and its definitely a good movie to watch.You will feel lousy for him at the end of the movie. For him as well as the other pop music heroes who then succumbed to their less than great fortunes as ordinary people and died in squalor and poverty unknown to the rest of the world. That's pretty phucking sad!Watch it, let the music inspire you and say a prayer for them.

British films made by people like Richard Curtis (The Boat that Rocked et al) tend to look at the swinging 60's of London with heavily rose tinted spectacles. All pimms, waistcoats, flower power and crazy shenanigans. All very well but not much to do with reality - I thought Austin Powers would have killed that off in the 90's....which is why Nick Moran's directorial debut is such a breath of fresh air.For those that don't know the Joe Meek at the centre of this film - control freak, gay in the wrong decade, tone deaf drug addicted musical pioneer - get ready for a roller-coaster of a ride. Without wishing to spoil the arc of the story, this is a classic tale of a man with a vision breaking new ground...with disastrous consequences.Con O'Neil dominates this film with a superb manic performance which captures the claustrophobic and chaotic feel of the centre of Joe's universe, his recording studio above a handbag shop in central London in the early 60's. Ably supported by a host of good actors - in particular Kevin Spacey, Pam Ferris, and (even) James Cordon are all spot on. What looks like a cod-60's Curtis-esquire disaster for the first 20 minutes heads somewhere altogether darker once the action cranks up as Joe starts to get some no.1 hits in the charts.A must watch cautionary tale about fame, love, jealously, paranoia and music, this is a fine carachter piece with some excellent nuanced comedy amidst the darker elements, it's a really well executed debut from Mr Moran...enjoy.