And that's the primary strength of the movie - the music. The songs are hung on a poorly developed story of pirate radio stations sitting in the North Sea in 1966, waiting to be made illegal by the British government (one of which is a formidable Kenneth Branaugh). There's a teenage boy looking to lose his virginity and accidentally comes across his hippie father, an over-sexed DJ named Big Dave and a wedding-that-wasn't, none of which is as compelling as hearing what radio jocks sounded like back then and jamming to The Who, The New Seekers and (as I mentioned) The Beach Boys. Murray from "Flight of the Concords" injects flashes of nut humor and Bill Nighy plays the exact same Brit he does in "Love Actually." The characters - besides Branaugh's dry role - give the movie spark.
I loved it so much, I decided to wear a dress with daises all over it today.
(Not really, but I did rock to some awesome tunes.)
Strangely enough, the class I TA for listened to a DJ from the '70s, I believe, the morning before I saw the movie. The same spirit of rebellion coursed through his words as did those of The Count (Hoffman). They - those behind the tunes spun before BOB FM and other pre-programmed stations - loved music and wanted to broadcast that personality with their favorite songs. I remember listening to the KISS 10 at 10 as a middle schooler; now I listen to my iTunes on shuffle all day. I don't miss the advertising, but I sometimes miss Janet Snyder in the morning. "Pirate Radio" makes me want to support stations again...but unless it's WERG 90.5, they probably don't play what I like anyway.
