Let's just call us "The Band You're About To Hear."

I haven't listed a modern film in my list of 100 movies in a while, so I'm going to do that this time around. I love movies that celebrate the past, which is one of the many reasons I love

#37 That Thing You Do (1996)


The basic storyline is pretty simple. Small-town band, The One-ders (later Wonders) make it big and rise to become teen sensations during the rock'n'roll age of the 1960's. Fame, of course, has its price and the band soon learns how hard it is to stay together when you're at the top. But don't worry, there's a decidedly happy ending and there are plenty of laughs throughout to keep this movie at its romantic and comedic best. I love this movie. I love the music, the costumes, the hair, the dialogue. It's so much fun! Tom Hanks directed, wrote, and starred in this film - which I think is pretty awesome. I love Tom Hanks (but then, who doesn't?).

If there's one thing I love, it's fake history. I think fake history is brilliant. It takes a lot of work to come up with storylines, bios, and random bits of detail to make the setting more real. This film is jam-packed with it. I was reading through the trivia listing on IMDb to see if there was anything interesting to share. It's incredible because the storylines of all the characters continue post-film-ending (there are even some bits in the soundtrack, just for good measure!). There are, apparently, tons of details that make it more believable within the context of the time period (for example, there's a commercial that plays at one point in the film that really aired at the time the movie takes place). And then, the similarities between the Wonders and the Beatles are incredible. It's all very thorough and pretty amazing.


I'm going to link to the list of trivia so you can peruse the details if you wish (I don't want to give away too many spoilers). But, of course, you do not have to catch all of these little details to enjoy the movie. It is, simply, a very entertaining and enjoyable film. So, now, for your viewing pleasure, I'm going to embed a music video from the film that acts as a sort of trailer as well. Enjoy!