Review – I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Watched on July 7th, 2021
Rating: 5/5 Stars

I went shopping the other day; July finally came around, and all Criterion Collection blu-rays and DVDs are 50% off at Barnes and Noble. I've had a running list for a while of Criterion blu-rays I've wanted to buy, however this one was never on it. In fact, I had never even heard of this movie until I went shopping on Monday. I was browsing through all of the movies they had in stock, and this one caught my eye. I grew up with the Beatles and am still a big fan so I immediately recognized the title and picked up a copy. I made a commitment to myself to only buy a few movies so that I didn't bankrupt myself right before returning to college, but after reading the back of the case, it hooked me right there and I knew this would be one I had to buy, regardless of the list I had previously made. The spontaneity of this purchase honestly means a lot to me in a very strange way, I'll try and explain it here.

Lately, I've been feeling a bit burnt out with movies. It's not exactly something I'm all too proud to say. For some reason, when I got home from college, I kept running into this dilemma: whenever I wanted to watch a movie, I didn't have the time, but when I would finally find time, I didn't want to watch one. For the longest time with film, I've felt like I have to check off some sort of "list" or watch movies because of some requirement among cinephiles. It's hard to explain, but for some reason I felt like I had to be watching certain types of movies or making sure I hit a ton of classics in order to call myself a film fan. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think this movie is gonna be what changes all of that. I don't solely want to watch movies because I'm checking them off a list or justifying myself as a film fan; it defeats the purpose of watching movies, it feels pretentious, and it takes most if not all the enjoyment out of film. I want to watch movies because I want to watch them, not because I feel like I have to watch certain movies.

I could've picked any of the movies on my list of films to watch tonight because I feel like I have to watch them as a film fan. Instead, I watched this movie that I had never heard of before because I wanted to. That's what I want to bring back into my life: watching movies because I want to.

I absolutely loved this. Maybe I'm biased because I love the Beatles, but I just had such a good time with this. It captured the fanaticism and crazy Beatlemania-energy of a time I never lived in so well, and made me wish I had been there. The story is great and I really enjoyed the switching between different character stories that all lead up to this one spectacular night. Loved the music of course, and I just had such a great time with this. This is definitely going to be a movie I rewatch. God I had such a good time with this.

I was just so happy when the credits rolled for this film, and for multiple reasons. This entire movie just made me happy as a Beatles fan (did I mention I had a great time with this?), the ending was just so satisfying, and I finally feel like I've fallen back in love with cinema.

I knew right from the moment that Richard "Ringo" started speaking that he was definitely the Polar Express kid. It's like he plays the same character in this lmao

Check out the original review posted on Letterboxd here.