92 min | NR | July 5, 2023 | Netflix
Chris Smith builds a documentary about Wham! out of nothing but archive footage, old audio, and a family scrapbook. Two teenage friends conquer pop and then watch the friendship outgrow the band. It is the last happy chapter before George Michael becomes George Michael.
Wham! is a documentary about the British pop duo Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael. Chris Smith builds it entirely from archive footage and recorded audio, with the two members narrating in their own voices. The film tracks the band from a suburban schoolyard friendship to global stardom and a planned breakup. The real subject is George Michael’s ambition. It is about a songwriter who needs a vehicle and a friend who is glad to be the passenger.
Andrew Ridgeley narrates himself with warmth and no bitterness. He is the guitarist who recognizes early that his friend holds the talent and decides that is fine. Ridgeley’s account stays generous about a role most people would resent. George Michael appears only in archive footage and old audio. He is anxious, calculating, and already aware that the pop star is a costume he can put on. The contrast between Ridgeley’s ease and Michael’s hunger drives every scene.
Chris Smith directs under a strict rule. No new footage exists in the film. Every image comes from home movies, television clips, magazine spreads, and the scrapbooks Ridgeley’s mother kept. Smith lays recorded audio from both men over the period imagery, so the narration always belongs to the people on screen. The technique keeps the film inside its own era and refuses the distance of present-day talking heads. Those scrapbooks organize the whole timeline, and Smith treats them as the film’s spine.
This is an affectionate film about a friendship that pop music cannot contain. It celebrates the duo without examining what the fame costs the men inside it. The archive is rich and the assembly is clean. The film stays inside the happy years and declines to push past them. Wham! gives you the rise and stops before the complications. It knows exactly which story it wants to tell and tells that story well.