Across the Universe (Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgis, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther McCoy) – A dock worker in Liverpool (Sturgis) sets out for America for a few months to find a better life in the U.S. in the turbulence of the late 1960s. A rich girl (Wood) and her Ivy League brother (Anderson) living a sheltered life away from the anti-War protests are punched in the stomach when her boyfriend goes to Vietnam and the brother drops out of school and promptly gets drafted. A would-be female rock singer (Fuchs), sounding like Janis Joplin, searches for stardom in the bar scene in New York while running a boarding home for wayward artists and misfits. On its surface, this is a formula for an interesting period drama about youth and war, free love and heartache, cultural clashes and self-actualization. That would have been worth seeing. But this turns out to be among the most creative, inventive, psychedelic, amazing, entertaining and compelling movies in years. Why? All of this is a musical! And it’s a musical where all of the music is a wonderful Beatles soundtrack with tune after tune sung in cover versions that surprise you in its choice of artists, tempo, and context. Songs that you never considered in an anti-war context suddenly come to life in poignant lyrics set amidst the most turbulent period of the last 60 years. What talented young performers! The acting is more than good; the singing is astounding; the enthusiasm is infectious. The movie has the feel of Rent without having to sing the dialogue. It’s a high-octane version of Once with already-famous music. It’s a screen version of Mama Mia with real plot and non-frivolous music. In this sense, the movie might not be totally unique but it is the best musical since The Sound of Music … and that includes Chicago. With special effects that will remind you of the stylized ’60s (it even has a Bond-like look to the closing credits), the story carries the movie while the music provides context and entertainment. The Beatles will be proud while the characters, named Jude, Lucy and Prudence, foreshadow the songs we want to hear. The age of love (flowers in their hair and all) makes the movie’s subtitle, All You Need is Love, more than a cliché. This is easily one of the best movies of the year.