Hey, kids, let's put the show on right here! Better yet, let Alan Parker stage it for you. In Bugsy Malone (1976) and Fame (1980), this English director assembled teen casts for slick, violent musical parables. Now, in THE COMMITMENTS, he turns Roddy Doyle's novel about a Dublin band into a rousing entertainment. It has the larkish wit and edgy camaraderie of the Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, to which it might serve as a prequel: a kid on the dole (Robert Arkins) organizes a fledgling group devoted to covering '60s rhythm-and-blues songs. How fervently these members of the...
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