I Wanna Hold Your Hand

By Sam Graham

The happy hysteria--or total insanity--that was Beatlemania is brilliantly evoked in this charming, entertaining 1978 movie from director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) and executive producer Steven Spielberg. It's February 1964. The Fab Four are making their first trip to America, and four Jersey girls (plus a couple of reluctant boys) are determined to get face to face with them--at their hotel, at their historic appearance on Ed Sullivan's TV show, or otherwise. They do so with varying degrees of success, and in ways that are amusing and clever, as are the depictions of the Beatles themselves (the real Fabs appear only in archival footage; in the film, their stand-ins are seen only from the back, from the waist down, and so on). Best of all, the soundtrack is filled with actual Beatle music. This one's an unexpected treat.

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