Wham! (2023, Chris Smith) (Patreon)

60/100

Can't say I was particularly interested in the Wham! story (though Smith has a track record of grabbing me with seemingly blah subjects; that's why I watched this), and there's not a whole lot to it, really—with the exception of their first released single (three months beforehand) and their farewell concert (a month afterward), the band's entire public trajectory happened while I was in high school. Nor was/am I a fan, with only "Everything She Wants" getting anything like heavy rotation on my turntable. (I used to buy every single that hit #1. That lasted until "Holding Back the Years," as I recall.) What's truly compelling about unitalicized Wham! is the Michael–Ridgeley dynamic: Childhood best friends form a band together and conquer the world, only for one of them—the one who'd originally been dominant—to gradually realize that he's dwarfed in talent by the other. Would love to see a fictionalized version of that Star Is Born-ish rise|fall (I Was a Teenage Appendage), and the real-life account might have been equally worthwhile, if not for Ridgeley apparently being the world's most understanding and emotionally stable guy, nothing but happy for his buddy's solo success. Great for him, if true; not so great for the movie. Indeed, Smith's so intent upon not trashing Ridgeley that he more or less reboots Wham! halfway through, going back to the duo's childhood years (which had already been explored in considerable depth, as this is a feature-length film exclusively devoted to a very brief career*) so that he can emphasize again Ridgeley's importance to the band's initial look and sensibility. It's all terribly nice, and I was grateful for an anecdote like Michael resenting "Do They Know It's Christmas?", against his will, because it prevented "Last Christmas" from becoming their fourth #1 hit in a single year. Still, Smith sticks to my preferred doc format—no talking heads, just archival stills, video, and audio interviews—and there's enough poignance, what with Michael's regret about his self-imposed closeting, to make Wham! a good deal more engaging! than I'd anticipated/feared. 

* Not only is Michael's solo work (apart from the weird crediting for "Careless Whisper") mentioned solely in closing text, but if you were somehow unaware that he's deceased, you would not learn it from this film unless you made it all the way to the very tail of the end credits, where a dedication to his memory finally appears. I admire the focus.