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Poster for That Thing You Do!

That Thing You Do!

The Fab Four without the Mop Tops

1996 · 1h 48m · PG Comedy, Drama, Music
Directed by Tom Hanks

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Overview

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. But behind the scenes, the group’s sudden fame tests their strength, their maturity and responsibility, and their ability to resist the temptations that money and notoriety always make possible.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
93%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Though Hanks keeps the satirical and critical aspects of this look at show biz fairly light, there's a lot of conviction and savvy behind the steadiness of his gaze.

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Fresh

First-time writer/director Tom Hanks stays about a half-beat ahead of the cliches with rim shots of boyish enthusiasm and deft comedy. The movie's also buoyed by the title song, whose Beatles sound is infectious enough to merit a real hit.

Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Fresh

A sweet, likeable tale of the quick rise to fame and then demise of a small town band. Set in 1964, Hanks' film offers a sanitized, Gump-ish look at a mythical period when boys were boys and girls were girls, with no references to the sex-drug subculture

Emanuel Levy, Variety
Fresh

Sweet nothing, then, but what would you expect of a rock movie devoted to the drummer?

Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Fresh

Mr. Hanks's debut feature, written and directed with delightful good cheer, is rock-and-roll nostalgia presented as pure fizz.

Janet Maslin, New York Times

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