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SUNDANCE 2021 REVIEW
THE SPARKS BROTHERS
By Danny Munso
In many ways, it’s surprising it took Edgar Wright this long to make a music documentary. The director behind Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Baby Driver has expertly used popular music to drive and propel his films more than any other filmmaker of the last 15 years. Music in an Edgar Wright film isn’t simply window dressing for a scene. It’s character driven. It informs the way a scene is edited. It is inextricable from the visual we see on the screen.
So while Wright making a music doc is natural, the subject matter is anything but. The band Sparks – comprised of brothers Ron and Russell Mael – is far from a household name, yet they have forged a 40-plus year career with multiple eras and reinventions. Wright’s intention is clear: you may not know Sparks but not only should you love them, there’s a strong chance your favorite artist already does. Wright interviewed over 80 individuals to be on camera from musicians like Beck, Flea and Weird Al to admirers that run the gamut from Mike Myers and Neil Gaiman to Jason Schwartzman and Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino.
The initial 20 minutes of The Sparks Brothers is Wright having an absolute ball with the format. He has the Mael brothers do an on-camera FAQ at the top, hilariously has the duo visit a Southern California beach to reenact a moment from their youth and allows the film to dip into several different types of animation to tell other parts of the Sparks tale. (In a fun moment for Wright superfans, frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost voice John Lennon and Ringo Starr in a brief animated recounting of a tale.)
But after that, perhaps a little disappointingly, the film settles into the format of a standard music documentary. Sparks has made 25 albums and Wright – who admits on camera in the film that he is a superfan – can’t help himself but go through each one-by-one. To be fair, there are enough individuals present to give each album its own moment and one can see how Wright easily justified going record by record. But it gets a little stale in a film that is already pushing the runtime limit of almost two and half hours. After a while, the viewer is left wondering if one or two could have been passed over.
The decision to cover each album hinders particularly in the final 20-25 minutes when the band’s resurgence is covered, thanks to a collaboration with Glasgow rock band Franz Ferdinand. There are also so many talking heads, and while certain opinions and lyrical interpretations by the band and their fans are obviously crucial, what gets sacrificed is an opportunity to hear more than a few unfiltered seconds of a Sparks song. For the uninitiated, it feels like a missed chance to showcase the band’s best material.
Where the film really excels is highlighting the band’s perseverance, perhaps its most crucial trait. The group had many failures and disappointments over their long career, yet always dusted themselves off relatively quickly and tried again. Their former drummer Christi Haydon becomes emotional discussing the brothers on screen, extolling their work ethic and determination. As she describes, the duo would work seven days a week on nothing but Sparks and they earned her admiration for their unwavering commitment to their music and to one another, no matter what acclaim they were earning from the rest of the world. No matter what you think of the group’s musical output, the film makes it clear that the brothers’ drive is something to be admired and praised.
Ultimately with The Sparks Brothers, Wright makes good on his thesis that this is a band that has gone underappreciated for the past few decades. His film and the clout his name brings will ensure that the Sparks name will endure.
For more info on The Sparks Brothers, visit its official Sundance page HERE.
DIRECTED BY: Edgar Wright
PRODUCED BY: Nira Park, Edgar Wright, George Hencken, Laura Richardson
This year the Sundance Film Festival is online – which means you can join in on the fun from anywhere in the world! While some films are sold out – tickets do become available sometimes at the last minute so make sure browse the catalog for a film you’d like to see and check for ticket availability here.
Want to read some interviews with today’s top storytellers? We hope you’ll check out our in-depth interviews or read a cool screenplay in its entirety in Backstory Magazine! You can read us on a desktop/laptop or via our iPad app. You can see Issue 42’s Table of Contents – or we hope you will consider – Subscribing or buying a single issue!
If you decide to subscribe – please use code: SAVE5 to save $5 off your one year subscription in the checkout cart on our website. Your login credentials will work both on a desktop/laptop or via our iPad app.