Midas Man – Dir: Joe A. Stephenson (13th Floor Film Review)

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Post-Peter Jackson’s Get Back, interest in all things Beatle-related has certainly risen…not that it ever was floundering. So, what better time to release a film about the “5th Beatle”…manager Brian Epstein?

Starring: Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Emily Watson, Eddie Marson, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno

The film has gone through some growing pains with Covid, creative differences, scheduling conflicts and three directors taking a whack at it. The driving force behind the project was producer Trevor Beattie, who saw it through to the end.

So, was it worth all the trouble?

Yes…and no.

Lead actor Jacob Fortune-Lloyd  is the films biggest asset. He does a wonderful job of portraying Epstein, a young, closeted-gay, Jewish man, whose family ran a chain of record stores and who, in November of 1961 caught the-then unknown Beatles performing a lunchtime gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.

Brian immediately seeing what many others didn’t…a band with the talent to take over the world. His passion is palpable and the scenes where Epstein is seen plugging the group to clueless record label know-nothings are some of the film’s best.

Also credible are the actors playing The Beatles themselves.

The film doesn’t shy away from Brian’s struggles with addiction, gambling and his own sexuality, although the rumoured tryst with Lennon in Spain in 1963 is not addressed. Instead we get a fictional relationship that doesn’t quite gel with the rest of the film.

And while most of the casting decisions work…Emily Watson and Eddie Marsan are Brian’s understanding parents and Eddie Izzard cameos as Allan Williams, the “boys” first manager. But, I’ve gotta say, Jay Leno as Ed Sullivan just doesn’t cut it.

Another negative is the lack of any Beatle songs in the film…when we see them performing, its non-original tunes like Money or Please Mister Postman.

I do like the choice to have Fortune-Lloyd break the fourth wall and occasionally address us, the audience. And the overall spirit and feel of the film is a success.

Sadly, Brian Epstein died in 1967, just months after Sgt Pepper was released, leaving the Fab Four rudderless. Although they went on to make great music for a couple more years, things were never the same without Brian…the man who threw his whole live behind making them the “topper-most  of the popper-most”.

Marty Duda

Midas Man opens in New Zealand cinemas today. Click here for tickets and showtimes

 

 

Marty Duda
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