In recent years, we have not been short of “fine documentaries” about The Beatles, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. But “Man on the Run” covers “new ground”, exploring what Paul McCartney did after the Fab Four broke up – which was, of course, to form the “oft-derided Wings, arguably one of the least cool bands ever to grace the Top 30”.
The film doesn’t restore the band’s reputation – “if you don’t like Wings when you go in, you still won’t like them when you come out” – but you will leave the cinema with a better understanding of “McCartney’s overriding need for a big musical project” post-Beatles, and also feeling “more sympathetic to the plight of poor Linda, a woman doomed to play under-appreciated keyboards under some of the worst hairstyles ever seen”.
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