That Thing You Do! (1996)

A band movie that lives or dies on one song, and the song delivers. Adam Schlesinger wrote the title track for the fictional Wonders, and it was catchy enough that the real single reached No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. Tom Hanks's debut as a director follows a small-town Pennsylvania band from a hometown gig to a radio hit in 1964, riding the British Invasion sound all the way, and every rung of the climb is played with a grin: hearing yourself on the radio, the first matching suits, the label's slick manager. It also knows exactly how fast a band falls apart once success arrives, which keeps all that sunshine from turning saccharine.