Did I know who Sparks was before I saw this movie? I am not sure, but they did look vaguely familiar. I don’t really much follow music, as I have said many times, thanks to my tinnitus. But I do like to learn new things, and the fact Edgar Wright put out a musical documentary about Sparks sure caught my interest. Given how he put Baby Driver together, I think it is safe to say Wright has at the least interesting taste in music, and he knows how to incorporate it into his work. Why not check out something where he discusses one of his own favorite bands? And, if the premise of the documentary is correct, it’s the favorite band of a lot of other people too, many of them in the music industry.
So sure, I’ll go learn a thing or two about Sparks.
Spartks are the brothers Ron and Russell Mael. Younger brother Russell is the singer and was considered something of a heartthrob in his youth, something attested to by many of the women interviewed during the course of the documentary. Older brother Ron played keyboards, apparently wrote a lot of the lyrics, had an odd mustache, and struck me as something of a performance artist. So, while Russell was more of a straightforward singer in the band, Ron would be off doing his thing on the side. Other musicians came and went. Their music was their own. And, from what I gathered very quickly, even diehard fans don’t know much about Sparks. That may be due to the fact the brothers are somewhat private. Or it could be due to the fact they’re both kinda quiet and softspoken. Or it could just be the two never really hit it that big and managed, over the multiple decades they’ve played together, to not really do much more than write and perform their music.
Seriously, no one in this documentary seems to have a bad thing to say about these guys. Even the former bandmates are entirely understanding about when the various back-up bands broke up.
As far as takeaways go, here’s what I picked up about Sparks: their sound was their own. If they had anything like a commercial hit, it was more of a coincidence that whatever they were doing appealed to the masses more than anything else. Also, despite the fact their music was very important to them and their main goal seems to be produce their art, the brothers also never quite took themselves seriously. There’s a sense of humor to their work, such as when a producer suggested they make some music people could dance to, so the brothers produced a song literally titled “Music That People Can Dance To”. It wasn’t intended to be insulting. They just took the request literally.
That sense of humor extends to Wright’s whole movie. He has a large number of people interviewed about their Sparks fandom, including a number of other musicians, former bandmates, actors, comedians, and even one woman who, at the age of 14, managed to rush a British stage to give Ron a hug as he played the keyboards (most of the other teenage girls rushed at Russell). Wright’s labeling system is interesting for his talking heads interviews. Among the titles used are “Canadian,’ “Rock God,” “Talia Shire’s Son,” and for John Taylor and Nick Rhodes, each was labeled in their joint interview with a single “Duran”. Wright even does it to himself for one of his own talking heads segments. He’s a “Fanboy”. It makes for among the many amusing sides as the movie chronicles the Mael brothers entire musical career.
And that is something worth noting. If you don’t know much about Ron or Russell, you probably won’t learn much about them. The focus of the documentary is entirely on their music and the production of it in every aspect. That includes their record albums because the brothers also had a certain amount of visual flare that doesn’t often pop up considering they’re musicians. I did learn a lot about their music, but I can’t say I learned much about them. And, oddly enough, I am fine with that. About all I am wondering about now is if Wright’s other movie due out this year will be as fun as this one.
Grade: A
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