A documentary following three very different acts trying to make progress in the music business, Let Us Be Golden passes the time but really has nothing to separate itself from any number of similar programmes to be found on your TV channels almost every day of the week.
Fatima is a cool club singer, who teams up with DJs to perform songs that everyone seems to enjoy despite the fact that I (though I may be alone here) thought they sounded pretty awful. Fatima has a lovely, soulful voice but the music backing her up was tonally wrong and all over the place, in my humble musical opinion. The Cheek are a band already with a big label but still striving for that big break. Their music is lively and decent and gives a little rock edge to their “pop group” tag. Beth has done everything her own way and is looking for success with her band that doesn’t require great compromise. Her music is interesting, poetic and quirky, much like the woman herself.
Colin O’Toole does nothing extraordinary here, and many of the scenes feel like a standard “behind the scenes” piece you can see on any band’s DVD, and so the documentary relies on the draw of the central characters. Fatima is a likeable girl that you want to do well, The Cheek are a bunch of young lads who often say things that cause unintentional laughs but it’s Beth who really makes the whole thing worthwhile.
Is it telling that Beth seems to be the only one heading in the right direction and staying truly happy while she stays true to what she really wants for her music and refuses to compromise? Perhaps so, perhaps that’s a lesson to be learned by everyone involved in the music industry.
The quality of the music varies, the quality of the characters varies and this documentary serves no real purpose other than to highlight the acts involved but it’s far from unwatchable. I just wouldn’t pay to see it in a cinema.
DIRECTOR: COLIN O’TOOLE
STARS: FATIMA, THE CHEEK, BETH
RUNTIME: 77 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: UK
Film Rating: 
