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David Bowie, Eddie O'Connell, Eve Ferret, James Fox, Mandy Rice-Davies ...( see more  see more... ) , Patsy Kensit , Ray Davies , Sade , Steven Berkoff , Tony Hippolyte

A commercial disaster upon its release in 1986, Absolute Beginners is an uneven but often stunning attempt at revitalizing the movie musical with postmodern sensibilities. Director Julien Temple was m...( read more  read more... )aking his first foray into dramatic features after an impressive string of music videos and documentaries (including the first of two Temple-directed profiles of the Sex Pistols), and he upped the stakes by harnessing his visual ingenuity to a period piece exploring London's social transformation at the edge of the '60s--a fleeting moment in the pop zeitgeist that may as well have been the Cambrian Age to Temple's MTV-generation audience. This is post-World War II London turning the corner from economic austerity, giddy with jazz and early rock, yet to witness the Beatles and the Stones.

Adapted from Colin MacInnes's novel, the story follows Colin (Eddie O'Connell), a young Londoner looking to find his place in the world. A budding romance with the intoxicating Suzette (Patsy Kensit) as well as crises of conscience over social responsibility and financial gain are the plot threads in a story that arguably tackles too many Big Ideas, including adolescent identity, British racism (directed at West Indian immigrants) and class prejudice, and capitalism itself, embodied by David Bowie as unctious, superstar executive Vendice Partners.

In wrestling with such valiant ambitions, Temple and his young cast establish the film's musical soul in a canny synthesis of '80s English pop with postwar bop and the seeds of Mod culture. Onscreen performances by Fine Young Cannibals, Sade, and Kensit, a Bowie production number ("Motivation") that cribs from Busby Berkeley, and a wonderful sequence with the Kinks' Ray Davies as Arthur (a likely nod to his own band's 1969 rock opera) are all well realized. Less obviously, Temple salutes the period's forgotten jazz legacy through a score from the late Gil Evans, and in the jaw-dropping, bravura opening sequence, an extended single-camera journey through Soho set to Charles Mingus's joyous "Boogie Stop Shuffle" that is itself reason enough to see this brave musical. --Sam Sutherland

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35% liked it

2,573 ratings

PG-13, 107 min.

Directed by: Julien Temple

Release Date: April 18, 1986

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DVD Release Date: April 15, 2003

Stats: 101 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (101)

  • RCCLBC
    May 19, 2009
    RCCLBC
    Just re-watched this, having seen it in the theater when it came out and on VHS several years ago.
    Sure it's not a GREAT film...but as musicals go (I generally hate them) this is one that I don't mind.
    Which I'm sure is a testament to the historical aspects of it's story and t...( read more)he fact that it is riddled with cameo's (Sandie Shaw) and musical "numbers" performed by some really great musicians (Bowie, Ray Davies, Sade).
  • ironclad1609
    June 11, 2007
    ironclad1609
    Probably a case of "you had to be there". First, in the time this musical is set in, at the edge of the 1960s, and then in the 80s, when this film was made. The songs and story just don't work that well anymore, some parts feel entirely pointless and are hard to refer to. With Da...( read more)vid Bowie's appearance the movie picks up some speed and takes a rather entertaining turn in the last 30 minutes. Still, nothing to write home about. Only Bowie's title song is really awesome, the rest of the music doesn't really stick with the listener.
  • dzfh98
    February 16, 2009
    dzfh98
    Very good performances
  • TioBradski
    January 20, 2009
    TioBradski
    Some scenes are spectacular, others are just ridiculous--but it's a musical, so lighten up, Grumpy! Gil Evans' music is fabulous, Ray Davies is great, David Bowie is weird, Patsy Kensit is foxy, and James Fox is Kensity.
  • alannaaa
    January 10, 2008
    alannaaa
    Only watch for Bowie. Even though he only has like one scene. There was a giant typewriter and doll house. And I really like the title song.
  • zandurian
    December 16, 2007
    zandurian
    I saw this before, but it was around the time it came out, so I think it is time to rewatch it.
  • Kamaria91
    July 25, 2007
    Kamaria91
    One off my favorites movies when i was younger
  • perseveress
    June 28, 2007
    perseveress
    Because the David Bowie song is so great
  • haroldchasen
    June 25, 2007
    haroldchasen
    Oh, how I wish this movie had been good. I love Bowie, and musicals, and '60s music, and 80s movies...but this is so bad. And not in a funny way. Boring.
  • moonshinegill
    June 16, 2007
    moonshinegill
    Sounds like the no.1 musical!!!

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