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some that I love in any given movie is a movie-original song. that is to say, not a song that was composed to be used in the background of a movie, or for the promotion of it, but a song that is made up by the characters in a movie. there's something about real songwriters having to come up with music that is realistic for the characters in the film to have come up with that I think brings a lot of interesting sensibilities to the table. they're exercises in what “pop” can be, distilled and reduced so that it makes sense in fiction. and thus, this week I bring you a review of the hottest, new movie everyone's talking about: tom hanks' 1996 film “that thing you do”.
“that thing you do” has a fairly simple premise: it's about a band in the 1960s who, by random luck, produce a perfect pop song – the titular “that thing you do”. the song absolutely explodes in popularity, and they ride out that popularity until they cannot anymore. I think if you've seen this sort of music film, there's not going to be a lot that will directly surprise you about this movie. you know the plot, the characters, and the general structure that the story will take. and that's fine.
this movie fits easily in the space of comfort food – it's not doing anything too ambitious, but what it is doing it executes really well, and thus is worth watching if you're into this sort of story. it's a long one, at a whopping two and a half hours, but it's fairly well paced, utilizing the vast runtime to be able to tell this grand story without seeming rushed at all. the poster focuses on tom hanks' character, who funnily enough is a music agent who only gets introduced an hour into the movie. i'm sure the marketing misled some people into assuming he was more of a lead character than he actually ends up being, but his role in the story is Perfect Hanks: stern, wise, fatherly, and a bit of a jerk. the actual protagonists are all played by lesser-known actors, with tom everett scott playing guy patterson, the proper lead of the movie. that being said, guy's love interest, faye, is played by the American Institution Liv Tyler, so not everyone is a no-name actor in this. in fact, there's a couple of other names that are hard not to notice in 2024 – charlize theron plays guy's other love interest, so to speak, and singer-songwriter Chris Isaak (of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me cinematic acclaim) is also here. all in all, an eclectic bunch.
but the actual reason to watch “that thing you do” is “that thing you do”. sometimes you'll get a movie that is about a band, and the songs are really good. that in and of itself is a blessing. but sometimes the movie will be a period piece, and even though the songs are really good, they don't necessarily sound like something from the era. i'm thinking here of the wonderful “sing street”. great movie, great songs, but only the first song that they come up with, “the riddle of the model”, sounds like something a group of 1980s irish teens would come up with. the rest just sound like pretty good pop songs. that is not the case with “that thing you do”.
“that thing you do” could've comfortably been a 1960s hit song. if you'd told me that the song that they made up in this movie actually really existed, and they just repurposed it for an original narrative, I honestly would have believed that. and so you get to the strangeness of this week's column: am I going to recommend you watch a movie that is two hours and twenty seven minutes long, just for a small pop song that sounds really good?
yes, yes I am. have a good week, folks, i'll see you in the next one.