[Telstar] starts off brightly with scenes of camp comedy that vividly recreate the rickety amateurishness of early British pop. Yet as the action flashes backwards and forwards while building towards Meek's tragic end, the tone veers wildly.

| Nov 22, 2020

You know, this isn't an unenjoyable movie and, if you are desperate to see a movie, it'll do, but it's never fully satisfying because it never fully decides what sort of film it wants to be.

| Aug 29, 2018

Nick Moran definitely emphasizes certain characteristics of the idiosyncratic producer over others for affect, but this is still as fascinating portraits in parts.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

Even if 'Telstar' can't quite get the measure of its fascinating material, its pluck and ambition prove infectious enough to outweigh its flaws.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

Telstar is an embarrassing farrago, an amateurish, incoherent pantomime of a piece, stuffed with interchangeable characters, a sketchy, largely unsympathetic leading role, and - betraying its stage play origins - unspeakably stilted dialogue.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jun 19, 2009

This is Meek's show, and as a wild and hostile central character (the bellowed phrase "F*** off" is never far from his lips) he is likely to fascinate and alienate in equal measure.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

Nick Moran's film, based on the stage-play he wrote with James Hicks, is an eccentric, sometimes underpowered but always watchable story about the early-60s prehistory of pop culture.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

The Meek they present is closer to being a character in Little Britain than the mysterious, proto-avant-garde sonic scientist revered by legions of contemporary electronic musicians. A little more weirdness would have been very welcome.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

O'Neill's performance is spellbinding, with Moran commendably allowing the actor the necessary time and space on the screen to believably cast his darkness upon those around him.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

Like Meek himself, Telstar draws you in despite its its imperfections, which don't detract too much from a bold take on an undertold and fascinating story.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 19, 2009

It's a solidly-made, enjoyable story that manages to rope in some notable cameos (can anyone spot Jimmy Carr) and shows Moran is a name to watch as a director.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

Clumsily plotted and psychologically messy as it is, Moran's pop biopic is a ripe bustle of business, given substance and conviction by well-rooted performances.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

Moran's film is not empty nostalgia. It is not The Boat That Rocked. It should be filed alongside Stephen Frears' Joe Orton biopic, Prick Up Your Ears, because its breezy exterior conceals a thoughtful consideration of a strange moment in British pop.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

Like Meek's music, it's not much good and definitely not sophisticated, but I enjoyed it.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

Telstar is a rambling, chaotic mess that's got missed opportunity written all over it.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 19, 2009

Telstar is still an oddly compulsive story of an exuberant mess of a man who played a key role in British pop history.

| Jun 19, 2009

Nick Moran's directorial debut is, in fact, remarkably light until it nears its tragic climax.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

By the film's end we feel we have had too much of a good thing - but since that is what the hero died of, it seems an appropriate sensation to leave us with.

| Jun 19, 2009

Some nice moments, though not all that convincing in its lament for a great lost talent.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2009

The film lurches uncertainly in tone from frisky nostalgia to fatalistic drama without really getting under the skin of one of the forgotten pioneers of British pop.

| Jun 19, 2009