“Hello cabbages!“

Story: What do you do when you’ve been in the biggest band ever? Well, if you’re Paul McCartney you disappear to your farm with your new wife and family, and see what happens next. And so Wings was born.

Genre I’d put it in: Musician Documentaries
Release Date: 2026 (Amazon Prime) 2025 (Telluride festival)
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original:A documentary about Paul McCartney, and the creation of the band Wings

Gotta say: The Beatles. Everybody who’s heard of them has some kind of idea of what they were. Just as they have a favorite. Paul was the easy favorite – right up front, eyelashes for days. McCartney’s second act, Wings, wasn’t as big, but still made quite a big splash in the 70s. Run takes a look at McCartney beyond the Beatles and how Paul, and Wings, moved past expectations.

I grew up listening to Wings on the radio. There was a bit of a love /hate view of the band at that time, as if the world was punishing the band for not being the Beatles. Run discusses this, with McCartney himself narrating these moments, talking about how the Four thought about it, but never with any seriousness. Or at least not enough to do it. Which was probably the right thing to do; the world keeps turning, and the guys had each made a new life for themselves.

A solid memory I have of the band is when someone decided to release Linda’s audio tracks from their albums. The result was Linda being pilloried. “She’s Paul’s Yoko!” (Not a bad thing, to be honest. Yoko was, and is, pretty cool.) Run faces this head-on, with Paul stating unequivocally that he enjoyed Linda’s unique voice. And here, we get a close look at Linda the person, rather than Paul’s Wife.

“Previously unreleased footage” can often mean stuff that wasn’t released for a reason. (Hint: typically boring stuff.) But these quiet, sometimes silly, moments really help flesh out the creation of the band, and the connection Paul had with Linda. Director Morgan Neville couples these moments with snippets from footage of the time, and cut-and-paste photo animation that lends a tongue-in-cheek feel to everything.

Run is more than a look at a band. It’s a window into the creative process, as well as a behind the scenes peeks into how records are made. It’s also a reminder that music isn’t all that serious when it comes to it. No, not the business aspects, that’s often a nightmare. But this look at Wings helps remind us that music can be fun. Thanks for that.

One serious moment in the film is towards the end, with the death of McCartney’s lifelong friend John Lennon. It feels like the other shoe dropping in the life of Wings. From the “death” of the Beatles and the birth of Wings, to the loss of a friend, Run is a warts-and-all view of a band and the life of it’s most famous members. Nor if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to listen to Band on the Run.

#Protip: Wanna know my favorite Wings song? You don’t? Too bad: it’s Helen Wheels. Give it a listen, it’s fun as hell.