That Thing You Do! (1996)

That Thing You Do! (1996)

Tom Hanks writes and directs this sweetly nostalgic sleeper hit about a one-hit-wonder band in the ‘60s

7.7

Movie

United States of America
English
Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
1996
TOM HANKS
Alex Rocco, Barry Sobel, Benjamin John Parrillo
108 min

What it's about

A Pennsylvania band scores a hit in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as it can, with lots of help from its manager.

The take

Plenty of films have been made about the grueling climb to rock-and-roll fame, but few carry the effortless charm that That Thing You Do! has. Written and directed by Tom Hanks, the film is as cookie-cutter as it gets, dodging the dark depths that typically haunt rock biopics. But that isn’t to say That Thing You Do! is boring—just the opposite, its simplicity and nostalgia make it wholly enjoyable. It’s a confection of a film that goes down easy, and it will have you smiling and bopping your head from start to end.

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