A new documentary and a new comedy, reviewed. 

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Much like the fans who felt like its breakup came too soon, you finish Wham!, a new Netflix documentary about the eponymous pop duo, wishing things went on a little longer than they did. It so proficiently uses its trove of archival footage and illuminating voiceover narration from members Andrew Ridgeley and (via stitched-together old interviews) the late George Michael to chronicle Wham!’s beginnings and amicable end that we realize, once the end credits start rolling, just how much we want the same approach applied to a movie about Michael’s inexorable solo career. It will probably be common among viewers to hope a “sequel” isn’t off the books for director Chris Smith.

Like the band’s good-time music, Wham! goes down easy. It’s a visually astute oral history where the only people doing the recounting are the ones who smoldered on the album covers, the very few outside commentators relegated to people like Michael’s father (who participates, like his son, in a strictly archival sense). Music critics who could give crucial context to the duo’s place in pop history and the subsequent influence they might have had don’t get an invite. (In Wham!, critics are reduced to mere naysayers with nothing better to do than spoil the fun.) 

Read the full column on 425.