When it comes to feelgood movies, it might not surprise some that a pick would come courtesy of Robert Zemeckis. After all, he has delighted us with some of cinema’s most enduring and crowd-pleasing blockbusters. But it’s not Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, nor any of the usual suspects who have secured spots on IMDb’s all-time favourites lists that I return to when I need a pick-me-up. It’s his very first film, 1978’s I Wanna Hold Your Hand: a criminally underrated gem of a debut that flopped at the box office but has always felt like something close to magic for me.
Set in 1964, it’s as much a madcap comedy romp as it is a sincere ode to fangirls, capturing a day in the life of a riotous group of teenagers in the grip of full-blown Beatlemania. They hatch a plan fuelled by the kind of misguided delusion only teenagers can have: sneak into the Beatles’ hotel via limousine, see them in all their corporeal glory, and by some miracle, score tickets to their legend-making performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
