Wham!, Listening to Kenny G

Wham!

Chris Smith's Wham!, streaming on Netflix, is a pleasing, yet superficial look at the career of the 80s pop duo. Smith's film is a fan's scrapbook of the band. All the band's career highlights are covered, but any sense of context or critical analysis is absent. Wham! wanted to shift the pop pendulum away from the alleged seriousness of post-punk and the New Romantics with a synth heavy sound that mashed The Human League with Grandmaster Flash. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and, as George Michael's songwriting matured, he relied more on the influence of contemporary R&B. However, this documentary views Wham more as stars in the pop firmament than musical artists, so little screen time is spent on their music except for an interesting segment chronicling Michael's rejection of the Jerry Wexler produced version of "Careless Whisper".

Despite their status as heartthrobs, Wham's music was solidly constructed pop and earned grudging respect from the critics of the time, something that can't be said of the man and music phenomenon known as Kenny G. The smooth jazz saxophonist, whose popularity crested in the late 80s and early 90s, not only elicited brickbats from the critics throughout his career, but also drew barbs from more respected musicians such as Pat Metheny and Richard Thompson. Penny Lane's Listening to Kenny G, streaming on Max, not only chronicles his career as musician, but also wrestles with the adoration and revulsion his music inspired. Credit goes to Mr. G for cooperating with Ms. Lane, but also to Ms. Lane for not responding to the project with total irony and giving screen time to both those who love and hate Kenny G's music. Certainly there are ironic touches, how could there not be given the subject, but Ms. Lane tries to be even handed throughout. This yields rewards as we not only get to see Kenny meticulously constructing one of his musical atrocities, but also Clive Davis pretty much admitting that payola helped grease the wheels of his protege's success. I value Wham's music more than Kenny G's, but Ms. Lane's profile of her subject is the more searching film.