Director Edgar Wright, known for comedy-action films such as Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver, pays tribute in nonfiction form to his musical heroes, the duo Sparks—two California brothers who have been recording steadily and performing inventively for five decades now, yet remain "cult" items to the top-40 listening public (for many years they were not even listed in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll). In music circles, Great Britain especially, the brothers Ron and Russell Mael are revered.
Given their big break by musician/producer Todd Rundgren ("Rock God," in Wright's subtitle) in an ensemble called Half Nelson, the Mael brothers eventually pared the act down mainly to themselves—boyishly handsome Russell singing, while the gangly, taciturn and somewhat alarming Ron (who for many years wore a toothbrush mustache, not unlike a certain Charlie Chaplin-lookalike German dictator) composed as a keyboard virtuoso.
Although somewhat in the 1970s glam-rock category, the brothers proved a genre unto themselves—or at least ahead of their time, in the broad use of synthesizers (alumni from Duran Duran, The Human League and Flock of Seagulls here describe their debt to Sparks).
Spread across 25 solid albums now, Sparks songs have trending themes of self-doubt, romantic angst, and existential absurdity. They avoid Radiohead-esque despair with their deft wordplay and wonderful comic sensibility (`Weird Al' Yankovic points out the injustice that brilliant musicians who incorporate humor in their work are just not taken seriously). Fortunately for Wright, visually imaginative and clever music videos also provide imagery for Sparks through the decades.
Offscreen the two brothers discuss their work habits and relationship in plain-spoken and friendly terms. Yet, as with filmmaker David Lynch, they somehow intrinsically maintain an enigmatic mien as singular, uncompromised artists.
Even with a two-hour-plus running time, the Sparks saga is never boring, more remarkably so because of a lack of, shall we say, fireworks? Never mind the R-rating (just for some dirty words), we hear of no discord, no drugs, no scandal (Russell and Jane Wiedlen, his duet partner on the rare Sparks' charting hit "Cool Places," had a brief romance; neither seems bitter about it), just a few spans where industry attention waned or cherished projects were canceled (a collaboration between Sparks and legendary French film clown Jacques Tati, for example). Through it all, however, the Mael brothers persisted and continue to do so.
Fannish in tone though it is, Wright's film solidifies the group's place in popular music's pantheon and is highly entertaining along the way. And you can dance to it. Recommended for concert-oriented and general-entertainment shelves. Aud: H, C, P.
Included in our list of Best Documentaries 2021.
