‘Wham!’ review: heartfelt Netflix doc is a ray of sunshine through dark clouds

George Michael summed up the Wham! years, fondly, on his iconic solo hit ‘Freedom! ’90’. “Heaven knows we sure had some fun, boy – what a kick, just a buddy and me“, he sang, celebrating the suburbs to superstardom journey he embarked on with teenage bestie Andrew Ridgeley. This feature-length documentary makes for affecting viewing because it tells the duo’s incredible success story through the lens of their rock-solid friendship. In the process, it shows that Ridgeley was a lot more than a lucky hanger-on.

Director Chris Smith, who previously made the brilliant festival exposé FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, forgoes talking heads entirely in favour of archive footage and audio interviews with Wham!’s two band members. Evidently, Michael spoke about the group quite a lot before his death in 2016, whereas Ridgeley was interviewed especially for this film. We don’t even hear from Wham!’s longtime backing singers, Helen ‘Pepsi’ DeMacque and Shirlie Holliman, which is perhaps a bit of a shame. But, the result is a portrait that feels intimate and authentic as well as fundamentally affectionate.

It’s also brisk and digestible, tracking the duo’s stratospheric rise in a shade over 90 minutes. It begins with Ridgeley befriending Georgios Panayiotou (as Michael was then known) at Bushey Meads high school in Hertfordshire, canters through their short-lived ska band The Executive, then captures their excitement as they land a record deal as the “amateurish” (their words) but charismatic duo Wham! Michael, shy and self-conscious at the time, relied on his more confident bandmate to shape the group’s fun-loving image.

Because they were initially marketed as somewhat political – one ’80s TV presenter describes their debut single ‘Wham Rap (Enjoy What You Do?)’ as “a social lyric to a disco beat” – the press turned snarky when their tunes became slicker and sunnier. Michael, who defined himself by his songwriting ability because his private life was mired in uncertainty, felt aggrieved, but comforted himself with the knowledge that Wham!’s popularity was skyrocketing. In 1984, he produced three UK Number One hits and would have claimed a fourth if Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ hadn’t pipped Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’ to the top.

Though Smith keeps the tone nearly as upbeat as ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’, his film doesn’t gloss over Michael’s struggle to reconcile his pin-up image with his evolving sexuality. He told Ridgeley he was gay during the ‘Club Tropicana’ video shoot in 1984, something which doesn’t faze his bandmate, but opted to stay in the closet to protect his family and career. Throughout, Ridgeley comes across as supportive and happy to focus on honing the band’s image as Michael takes control of their increasingly sophisticated sound. He also accepted his lot when it became obvious that Michael was priming himself for a solo career. At 1985’s massive Live Aid concert, Michael joined Elton John for a duet of ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’, while Ridgeley sang backing vocals on the sidelines.

Wham! bowed out in 1986 with an epic farewell gig at Wembley Stadium, after which Michael told Ridgeley: “I couldn’t have done it without you.” There was never any nostalgic reunion tour, partly because Michael became a solo superstar, but mainly because the group’s USP was youthful exuberance. As Ridgeley puts it here, “Wham! was never going to grow up.” Though a cloak of poignancy hangs over the film because Michael is no longer with us, it’s still a welcome reminder that he and Ridgeley really did have some fun, boy, as they conquered the world. And it ends with a happy postscript: in 2021, 36 years after its initial release, ‘Last Christmas’ finally did make it to Number One. Wham! may never have grown up, but their biggest hits have aged rather better than many critics would have expected.

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