Hunky Dory

I usually despise musicals. I cringe at the sight of teenagers wearing pasted-on smiles, belting out show tunes whilst mid-conversation with stern authority figures. Yet Marc Evans' Hunky Dory seeks to counter the contrivance of High School Musical and Glee, instead presenting us with a naturalistic drama that explores the lives of a dreamless bunch of kids in pre-Thatcher South Wales. Despite facing their last summer holiday before being destined for mediocrity, free-spirited drama teacher Vivienne May (Minnie Driver) wants her class to put on an end of year production of The Tempest "that William Shakespeare and David Bowie would be proud of" in order to give them some lasting hope of achievement.

The film follows the cast as they seek to produce a "Shakespearean concept rock opera", despite disapproval from conservative teachers, prejudiced rugby coaches and skinhead relatives. The youngsters' talents shine through, with the 1976 backdrop meaning ensemble performances of the likes of David Bowie, Nick Drake, ELO and The Beach Boys. There is a strong feel-good vibe to Hunky Dory, which dances between comedic musical and nostalgic drama with some success. Several character arcs map the cast's progression through the stereotypical hurdles of adolescent strife – but all's well by opening night, when the class perform relatively unscathed.

However, there is a great failing in Hunky Dory due to its poverty of originality. The setting and story borrow heavily from Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused and School of Rock, whilst the students' individual stories aren't given time to develop, and so seem to be pulled straight from Skins and Cemetery Junction. Perhaps Marc Evans bit off more than he could chew here. I imagine that Hunky Dory would play out quite well as a TV mini-series, and perhaps the predictable plot and two-dimensional characters may simply be a result of it being confined to 110 minutes. Nonetheless, the film is an easy watch, especially the final rendition of Life On Mars?, which is performed impeccably. Expect some warm chuckles in the hazy Welsh sunshine, but not riotous laughs. Hunky Dory won't ever have you on the edge of your seat, but its pleasant enough to keep you in it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The storyline and the music brought back fine memories (I was almost the same age in the same time period--and oh how the music took me back). In this the script was VERY successful in conjuring a specific time and place.

Although I was in the United States rather than Wales, I would have to say our general teen experiences of the times were pretty similar on both sides of the Atlantic. We certainly experienced that same raging uncertainty of being a teen of any time period, but ours was greatly amped up by the extraordinary social upheaval of the 60s and 70s, which could only serve to exacerbate the general fear of what comes next in anyone's teens. This anxiety would be even more potent in a region with rampant unemployment and open class warfare (not to mention the ongoing clash in Ireland of the time).

The excellent use of music in this film brought out qualities in the songs that were lost when streamed out on the radio waves among the popular playlist of the day, and certainly threw them into a new light, with nuances I'd never before considered. Very effective and in some places, positively poignant. I thought the choices of music were excellent; so much so that I could have easily enjoyed much more of it and more of the film in turn, just on that alone.

To be truthful, the movie really could have used another half hour or more, just to flesh out the more important characters. There were some interesting people here, but the length of the film gave them-- and in truth the storyline, short shrift. While that could have been addressed by reducing the number of main characters or focusing less on the more extraneous of the story lines, I don't know if I would have in fact enjoyed the film more by doing so. I would have like more of everything to be truthful; more exploration of the characters and their relationships that we were exposed to; more of the film's interpretation of the music put through the lens of of hindsight; and more development and rehearsals of their play--when juxtaposed and compared with the daily lives of the film.

Certainly not everyone will agree with me, but it was a terrific little film--and I'd like to see more of it. Just more. Not the Hollywood treatment, no, that would alter it's character too much I fear, but just more of what we were given all too briefly. Yes I admit, I may be biased by my own familiarity and nostalgia of the times, but I am not going to apologize for that. I simply Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

Oh for.... they wouldn't allow me to capitalize that I "love it". L.O.V.E.D. I.T. I don't understand how anyone can consider this shouting for god's sakes, it's only a voice in your own head powered by your own imagination. No one is shouting! If anything that exclamation point conveys shouting more than capitalizing an entire word. Capitalizing only emphasizes the word or words. Emphasis, not shouting. I would italicize it but that doesn't W.O.R.K. on IMDb's website. If you italicize or even bold letter a word it just comes out with ampersands and all kinds of mixed symbols--but no italics or bold letters. If they fixed that then I wouldn't be tempted to S.H.O.U.T.! Moderators? Do you read these?????

People have complained that this film is too formulaic, it's too glossy and sugar-coated and that it's so steeped in saccharine sentimentality that it will make the overpriced, syrupy Coke that you bought from the multiplex foyer seem sour and flat.

While there is definitely truth in the above statement, I think enjoyment of this (and any) film depends on your attitude. If you go into this film expecting to see some gritty socio-political drama focussing on the oppression of Welsh mining classes, you will be sorely disappointed. You will come out complaining about how populist it is, how it's so conventionally structured and emotionally sensationalist etc, etc.

The poster is a lovely snapshot of a group of idyllic young friends having fun in the blistering summer of 1976. It's all orange and glowing. The trailer gives a taste of how packed the film is with poppy love songs of the era, how predictable the premise makes the plot, how familiar the angsty teenage characters are, how petty the conflicts seem in this hazy summer utopia of a bygone Britain and how indulgently reminiscent it is.

It's called Hunky Dory.

The signs are there - everything about the design screams out feel-good mainstream movie. It is unashamedly populist, unashamedly sensational and is obviously going to be as conventional as any piece of popular cinema. There's nothing subtle about the way the film advertises this sense of style.

To know all this, watch the film then criticize it for the glaringly obvious is lazy criticism, at best. Don't go and see the film if you know you're going to suffer an adverse reaction to the sheer amount of light-heartedness going on. That's like going into a screening of Shrek with your arms folded for the entire movie then coming out in a huff saying to your bemused/horrified children "the guy's an ogre but not once did I see a man's skin being peeled off while he was still alive."

For those more willing to accept this film for what it so blatantly is, I'd say it's an easy, feel-good film with and great 70's soundtrack (from the likes of Bowie and ELO) and superb Welsh accents throughout. A coming-of-age film set in a specific place and moment in British history, it shares an obvious affinity to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Mechant's Cemetery Junction as well as Billy Elliot (a couple of the producers made this film too).

There are a lot of characters so the attempt to squeeze in all of their individual stories is overly ambitious, but the cast are great. Minnie Driver is easily lovable and I get the feeling you'll be seeing a lot more of Aneurin Barnard's face in the future. The ending is a little bit vague and they try and remedy this by giving a 'where are they now' sequence during the end credits – which is a bit half-baked (no reference to the recreational activities of the time intended).

Overall, a likable film with some nice messages (namely Karl Marx's sentiment "don't let the b*st*rds grind you down") and a well-polished style that makes for easy watching.

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I defy anyone who grew up in the 70's, especially those who remember the long hot summer of 76, not to love this film. Maybe its just me but it seems to capture perfectly the mood and music of the time. Minnie Driver is superb (and gorgeous, and Welsh) as the drama teacher of a typical 70's comprehensive struggling to direct the end of term school performance, a musical version of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. It is a beautiful, gentle film with great performances, great characters and great music. I recommend watching late night with a few beers.

Very astute of the submitter in the Character section of the Goofs to remind us that ELO's "Livin' Thing" was not known until later in 1976 as it was released in November along with parent album "A New World Record". "Hunky Dory" is a creature of the late spring of that year.

Nonetheless, the choice of music in this movie, as a remark, is simply outstanding. It finely captures that moment when the singer songwriter sound of the early 70s was giving way to late glam and early new wave sensibilities (a la Ferry, Bowie, Lee, Drake, Lynne). In fact, a book has been written ("Hollywood Film 1963-1976: Years of Revolution and Reaction") that pinpoints 1976 as the pivot year when the cultural reign of the 60s and early 70s ended.

As a disclaimer, I don't know what music was being played on the BBC in pre-Thatcher Wales; would she actually have been seen on BBC nightly television in 1976, three years ahead of her ascendancy, as she does in the film? But I do wonder about other culturally significant music of 1976 that might have been overlooked.

As a leading example, the advent of Queen's "A Night of the Opera," generally acclaimed the Sgt. Peppers of the 70s, plops squarely in May of 1976 when "You're My Best Friend" was picking up steam as the followup single to enormous "Bohemian Rhapsody," and the Elizabethan "39" was starting to haunt the airwaves. Irish heavy rockers Thin Lizzy sprang from regional jail at that moment and John Miles, whose title cut,"Stranger in the City," was a great, if passing, anthem to weary youth in Britain, peaking around April 1976.

Genesis' "Trick of the Tale" was a breakout commercial LP from 1976, loaded with snappy art-rock tracks, bespeaking a sense of melancholy associated with life change in English youth, though this might have been more suited to highbrow Charterhouse and Ellesmere, the latter featured as bedrock in 1978's Richard Burton vehicle, "Absolution".

The Rolling Stones released "Black and Blue" in April 1976 carrying a couple of textured, sentimental songs in single "Fool to Cry" and sadly reflective "Memory Motel," both all over the radio then. Too American sounding?

In the obverse, I question whether Ontario's Rush had really arrived in Wales at that point to the extent that the schoolboys could play, chord for chord, with no charts, a good bit of "Passage to Bangkok" on the brand new "2112" album. If you need a guitar-heavy AOR entry, why not England's Foghat? "Fool for the City" was sitting right there on album playlists in May of 1976.

Finally, 1976, of course, was the year of Peter Frampton, I am imagining the brilliant live versions of "I Wanna Go to the Sun" or "All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)" as fitting period citations of prep yearning for flight. I won't mention anything about "Born to Run," the sensation of that stateside season, released several months prior to May of 76, as Middle Atlantic bravado would not sync with "Hunky Dory's" more woozy, Welsh bard effect. Nor would a recent UK platinum smash by The Three Degrees and its spawning movement, (gasp) disco, whose 1975 afterbirth, populated the times.

As a PostScript, I loved the choices of both "Strange Magic" and "One Summer's Dream," both underrated ELO dreamers. I can't help wanting more ELO from the period (understanding there is only room for two in this multi-artist effort) as their current "Face the Music" sported heady standards like "Nightrider" and "Waterfall"; and if we look back just several months earlier, the "El Dorado" album's ultimate orchestral Beatles paean, "Can't Get it Out of My Head".

We have only one film here, and "Hunky Dory" made its choices. My curiosity aside, they are fine decisions.