'Wham!' isn't fantastic, but it's a ray of sunshine nonetheless

Told using archive footage and a previously recorded interview with George Michael and contemporary interviews with Andrew Ridgeley, 'Wham!' tells the story of the pop duo who met in the heart of London and took on the world with their effervescent blend of pop...

Given the scale of talent that was comprised in Wham!, the documentary chronicling their achievements and their story feels decidedly light on any kind of examination. It's surface-level stuff, focusing on light-hearted topics like their choice of sportswear attire or the filming of the music video for 'Last Christmas'. Here and there, there are moments when it follows a track down into consequential things, like George Michael's complicated love life and his coming out to Ridgeley first before anyone else or the fact that they were both sons of immigrants and joined by this shared experience.

Rather, 'Wham!' keeps things upbeat and joyful - just like the music itself. There's plenty of finger-clicking, foot-tapping songs played throughout the documentary, as well as early recordings of hits like 'Careless Whisper' and 'Club Tropicana', all of them played on scratchy tapes with a delightful sense of texture to them that you just don't get anymore. Likewise, Ridgeley is open and honest in a way that feels deliberately against our bravado times. He fully admits at various points in the documentary that his songwriting abilities were stretched thin, while George Michael - or Yog, as Ridgeley calls him - was gifted beyond his years.

For anyone who saw the excellent documentary 'Freedom Uncut', Michael was a terrific interviewee. He was engaging and smart without being pretentious, introspective yet not self-serious. Here, his interviews are equally so. Michael talks fluidly about his time as one-half of the pop duo, how he began to develop as both a musician and as a person, and the impact his celebrity had on both his relationship with his father and his own identity, leaving behind Georgios Panayiotou and becoming George Michael. Again, 'Wham!' only brushes on this stuff and never delves too deeply into any one topic before it's on to something else.

Yet, there's an honesty about 'Wham!' that is often missing from these kinds of retrospective documentaries. Ridgeley, at one point, confronts why Wham! ended when it did and captures both the sadness of its end and the enduring appeal. Wham! was borne out of a time of youth and exuberance, as they themselves were young and full of life. Wham! couldn't exist middle-aged, but the friendship they shared was one that endured until the end. Both of them - Michael, from previous interviews, and Ridgeley in the here and now - speak of one another with the kind of brotherly devotion that is impossible to fake or ignore.

While it may take a cursory path through their career and lives, 'Wham!' is engaging enough for those who lived through the era or those who enjoy deliberate, enthusiastic pop music.