Review: 'Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles'

Brian Epstein lived with a massive secret at the same time that he was one of the most recognizable men of his era. To this day he remains the most famous band manager in pop history. He was also a gay man living in mid-twentieth century Britain, where homosexuality was outlawed and a man caught having sexual relations with another man faced prison or even chemical castration. When he should have been basking in his immense success as the business brain behind The Beatles, Brian Epstein lived under perpetual thunderheads of stress, fear, and self-loathing. That final quality may even account for why he fell in with The Beatles in the first place, as the Beatle that most enthralled him was regularly horribly cruel to him, Lennon casually ridiculing his manager both for being gay and Jewish. Even worse were some of the men Epstein with whom he had romantic and sexual relationships. It was not unusual for him to be robbed, beaten, or blackmailed. 

Review: 'All You Need Is Love: The Beatles In Their Own Words'

According to its press release, Peter Brown and Steven Gaines's All You Need Is Love: The Beatles In Their Own Words is "A LANDMARK ORAL HISTORY ON THE BEATLES" (their caps). 

There are several problems in that last sentence: 

A) Only 20% of All You Need Is Love consists of The Beatles' own words (The Beatles being Paul, George, and Ringo, but not John). The other words are supplied by Yoko Ono, Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Boyd, Maureen Starkey, Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall, "Magic" Alex Mardas, and twenty or so others in or around The Beatles' circle.

Review: 'Fashioning the Beatles: The Looks That Shook the World'

Along with their myriad musical innovations, The Beatles completely changed the way men were allowed to look when the group invaded the globe with their moppy tops and slender suits. They re-popularized facial hair, made the Cuban heel ubiquitous, and made it okay for guys to wear what were traditionally gals' clothes. For fashion-focused folks, these are developments every bit as earth-quaking as the tape loops of "Tomorrow Never Knows" or the orchestral crescendos of "A Day in the Life". To them, Deirdre Kelly's new book Fashioning the Beatles: The Looks That Shook the World will be what Revolution in the Head is to people who enjoy the group's music.

Review: 'Good Ol' Freda'

And so we’ve pored over Beatlemania so thoroughly that the only thing left to scrutinize is the band’s secretary. “Who would want to hear the secretary’s story?” Freda Kelly herself asks at the beginning of Good Ol’ Freda. Well, to answer her and any other skeptic, 660 Beatles fans, for starters. Good Ol’ Freda was made on their generous contributions to the film’s Kickstarter campaign. One fan even sold a single strand of George Harrison’s hair on ebay to earn $1,600 of the $58,000 ultimately raised. Well, there’s one story that hasn’t been told in any of the other Beatles documentaries.