See it at the Movies

ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US

Joyce and Don Fowler
Posted 9/4/13

* * *

(For young girls & those curious about the attraction)

I’ve always wondered what the big attraction was. Boy bands are certainly nothing new. Going back to my younger days, there was …

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See it at the Movies

ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US

Posted

* * *

(For young girls & those curious about the attraction)

I’ve always wondered what the big attraction was. Boy bands are certainly nothing new. Going back to my younger days, there was Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and all of those great groups from the ’50s and ’60s. Then there was The Beatles. Jump ahead to Backstreet Boys and all that followed.

Now we have a group of five British X-Factor losers who Simon Cowell molded into One Direction, creating a marketing program to bring them to become the hottest group in the world. If you are interested in knowing what your young daughters or granddaughters are going crazy over, you just might want to see this squeaky clean documentary that makes the teenage group look like saints.

Their stage presence is a world away from what was presented as the MTV Award show, and they remain as pure as Miley Cyrus has turned quite sooty. Their lyrics talk of teenage angst and young love, bringing their female audiences to tears. “I’m Dying Just to Know Your Name,” “You Got That Thing About You” and “What Makes You Beautiful” is a far cry from the rap and hip-hop garbage that fills the airwaves.

We learn a bit about the individual singers’ backgrounds and how they were chosen and marketed by Cowell. Then, thank God, Cowell disappears, and we go on a magic journey around the world as the guys fill stadiums, mesmerize teenyboppers (Do they still call them that?) and seem to be having the time of their lives.

In today’s cynical world, it all seems too much to believe. If you buy into everything you see and hear, they are just normal young men who have been thrust into stardom and seem to be dealing with it fabulously. They talk about their new world and how lucky they are, with a reality that someday it may all end.

It is given a PG rating, but compared to anything else showing I’d give a G.

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