That Thing You Do!

I was saddened to hear Adam Schleshinger had died from the Corona virus. I wasn't a Fountains of Wayne fan but I loved the movie That Thing You Do! (saw it twice in the theater), and he wrote the iconic title song. Pitchfork marvels at the movie somehow being a love letter to The Beatles without actually featuring The Beatles:

For Beatles fans of a certain age, the easter eggs within this faithful period piece—the purposeful misspelling of the band’s name, the way “That Thing You Do!” starts off dreary before being pushed into a faster tempo (like the Beatles’ breakthrough “Please Please Me”), mentions of local college Mercyhurst (which brings to mind the Beatles’ own Merseybeat scene), Hanks’ A&R character Mr. White channeling the refined taste and shrewdness of Beatles manager Brian Epstein—became just another part of the elaborate web of Beatles trivia and lore.

And there's a million more examples. But the movie is actually about much more, including:

For all the enthusiasm of the Wonders’ breakneck rise, for every cheery montage and musical idol met, That Thing You Do! is also a cautionary tale about the music industry: how labels can clamor around a rising star, attempt to turn their success into a formula, and treat them as disposable if it doesn’t work out. But Hanks also does something kind of unexpected: It’s the band’s frontman, Jimmy, not Mr. White, who ends up being the bad guy. Sure, Jimmy quits the group for what is technically an admirable reason—because Play-Tone insists the Wonders record cover songs and upbeat takes on “That Thing You Do!”—but first he’s a tremendous jerk to his girlfriend Faye (Liv Tyler), who swiftly dumps him by saying she shouldn’t have even wasted her kisses. This sets up a happy ending—Faye getting “good and kissed” by Guy, after months of sweet tension—while also allowing the film to make its point about the shelf life of ’60s one-hit wonders and, more broadly, what it takes to survive long-term as a musician.

Also great:

Hanks, to his credit, is a genuine British Invasion fan—he inducted the Dave Clark Five into the Rock Hall with a long, breathless monologue about finding joy and abandon as a kid through this style of music. Someone who doesn’t know the thrill (and perhaps rebellion) of hearing their favorite song come on could not have created the movie’s most ecstatic scene: the first time “That Thing You Do!” plays on the local radio station. Before the brief song even ends, the members of the Wonders all congregate at Guy’s family’s appliance store and blast the tune on every radio in the place, bewildering parents and customers. Steve Zahn, as goofball guitarist Lenny, is so physically overwhelmed, he grabs and kisses a cardboard cutout of a woman.