Queerguru reviews MIDAS MAN the intriguing story of Brian Epstein the queer genius who introduced The Beatles to the World

 

 

We were not paying attention this month to the New York Jewish Film Festival at the Lincoln Center so we missed the US debut of an intriguing Brit film that had been on our radar for some time.  Joe Stephenson’s MIDAS MAN is the captivating story of Brian Epstein who discovered The Beatles and became their manager and mentor despite the fact he and the Boys came from totally different worlds. The film premiered in Canada in 2024 and was released in the UK, Australia and China. Why the film was never given a theatrical release in the US is still a mystery but then so too is the fact that Stephenson was actually the 3rd director to helm the movie.  Nevertheless it has an important story to tell about a crucial part of both musical history and of queer history when homosexuality was still illegal in the UK.

Epstein was a closeted gay man who came from a wealthy Jewish family whilst the band members were very working class.  They however had two things in common. They were from Liverpool a major port city in Northen England, and also they shared a passion for music.  Jacob Fortune-Lloyd gives a beautiful nuanced performance of the sensitive conflicted Epstein who would seemingly make out of character decisions that on a business level would be remarkably successful.  Yet his risky attempts to look for sex and/or love on the downlow threatened his whole way of life.  His addiction to recreatinal drugs helped, until the didnt.

The Beatles journey to super-stardom is well documented … from the legendary performances on Ed Sullivan TV Show that not only cementend their global success but also started ‘The British Invasion‘ carving  the way for so many other  upcoming bands.  The success they would achieve would necessitate  the need to re-write the record books as they collected an unseen number awards and Number 0ne hits  that has  never been achieved simce.  This movie however is more about Epstein than the band and that is made obvious with the poor casting of actors who had obviously been chosen for looking vaguely like the band members, and not for their acting skills. The  only exceptions were Jonah Lees as John Lennon, and Darci Shaw as Cilla Black another pop singer Epstein had discovered. 

The movie is billed as based on a true story and there are rumours that Epstein’s one romance ended much worse than in the film version.  But then again we have yet to see any queer movie set in those pre-legalisation days ever to have anything approaching a happy ending. 

We are not giving away by mentioning the well known fact that in 1967, just 6 years since he had discovered the Beatles.  Epstein died of an accidental  overdose.  He was just 32 years old.

 

 

 

PS At the moment this film is only available via Amazon Prime UK but it can  be accessed from other countries by a VPN

 

ROGER WALKER-DACK.

Creator, Owner, Editor-in-Chief.  Miami Beach, FL / Provincetown, MA

Member of G.A.L.E.C.A. (Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) and NLGJA The Association of LGBT Journalists. and The Online Film Critics Society. Ex Contributing Editor The Gay Uk & Contributor Edge Media Former CEO and Menswear Designer of  Roger Dack Ltd in the UK ‘one of the hardest-working journalists in the business‘ Micheal Goff of Towleroad