David Bianculli
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
The music certainly is that way, but so is this documentary.
The first eight hours of the Beatles' anthology seem vibrant and exciting and not at all dated, even though it's the same content as before, only shinier.
And the final hour, full of cutting-room floor gems, is a treat.
In the original documentary, you saw and heard only one complete song from the Beatles on their first Ed Sullivan show appearance.
In this new hour of the Beatles' anthology 2025, you get another, along with plenty of studio outtakes.
And there's a lot of fascinating footage of Paul, George, and Ringo reuniting to record new Beatle tracks in the 90s, based on old demo recordings from John, along with a juicy origin story told by George of how the musical reunion came to be.
It's a story that wasn't told in the 1995 documentary.
Jeff Lynn ended up producing those new Beatle tracks, and you can see him working here with George, Paul and Ringo, and you witness the same sort of genial vibes that were on view in Jackson's Get Back.
These were men who, despite all the fame and fights and complicated lives, clearly loved one another.
The Beatles' anthology 2025 ends with the three of them at George's Friar Park estate lounging on the grass.
George is playing a ukulele, he and Paul are singing, and Ringo is slapping his legs in time.
Instead of brand-new interviews with Paul and Ringo, the documentary ends there.
But it's a moment that feels not only fresh and natural, but unabashedly tender and sweet.
65 years ago, director Alfred Hitchcock shocked audiences and changed cinema forever with the release of his 1960 thriller movie, Psycho.
It was a slasher film before that term existed and was based on a book by Robert Bloch.
Hitchcock was attracted to the film because of the unexpected sudden murder of a central character early on.
Joe Stefano, who wrote the screenplay, preserved that central surprise, and so did Hitchcock.
He cast movie star Janet Leigh in the role of a criminal on the run, then had her character stabbed to death in the shower after checking into a remote motel run by Norman Bates, played by Anthony Perkins.