KYMM'S 365 DAY MOVIE CHALLENGE #18: THE SPARKS BROTHERS (2021, dir by Edgar Wright, UK)

I have been vaguely hearing about this movie as being a thing that existed, but I was not even remotely interested in it. And I don’t mean I was like, “UGH! Why would I want to watch a movie about THOSE PEOPLE?!“ but more along the lines of, “That’s a thing that wasn’t made for me, moving on. Hey, In the Heights is coming soon!”Then, on the podcast Filmspotting, they didn’t do a full review, but Adam talked a bit about it, and how he had never heard of Sparks, but that it was a doc by Edgar Wright, and it was so interesting and cleverly made, and the music is great, and he came out going, “I must start listening to Sparks!” I thought, I think I want to experience this feeling, and off to the AMC I went.

The movie is 2h 15m, and you know my opinion on movies over 1h 40m, and it’s that it should have been 80m max, cut that sucker down. However, by the end of the film, where I didn’t get up to pee even once and that is a miracle right there, I was wishing it was twice as long.

Sparks are a band made up of two brothers, Ron and Russell Mael, along with more band members over the years. They have been together for fifty years and have released twenty-five albums, and are basically known as your favourite band’s favourite band. Kind of like how the Velvet Underground didn’t sell many albums on first release, but everyone who bought one started a band. Like that, but for fifty years.I realized while watching the film that I had sort of been slightly aware of them a weensy bit over time, I knew the song Cool Places that they did with Jane Wiedlin, I remembered that video, and also the song This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us sounded pretty familiar, but there are another 298 songs that I didn’t know, and it all was a revelation.

There are many talking heads, band members and producers from over the years like Todd Rungren and Giorgio Moroder, non-famous fans talking about their love of the band, but also Beck and Jason Schwartzman and Weird Al and Flea and Amy Sherman-Palladino, everyone loves Sparks!

Edgar Wright even appears on camera himself, with the chyron “Fanboy” under his name. But especially there are the brothers Mael themselves, wryly telling their story.This is the story of a brother band who doesn’t get in feuds (see, Kinks and Oasis, it can be done!), doesn’t do drugs, never blew the money they made in the fat times so that they were able to get through the lean times, this is no VH1 Behind the Music episode of a band that skyrocketed and crashed. There were no massive global hits, no overwhelmingly huge arena shows, but this is not to say that they always flew under the radar. They played the Hollywood Bowl, they had hits around the world, they reinvented themselves over and over while always remaining true to their vision. All bands should strive to be Sparks.

Ron is the silent keyboard player with the little moustache (I’m not going to say Hitler moustache…dammit! I accidentally did!) who writes all of the songs and looks like someone out of a silent movie, which Russell is the one who looks like a rock star, handsome with big curly hair, but with such an unusual voice, high and wavering, that fits perfectly with Ron’s unique lyrics. As it is pointed out in the film, they are each half of the same creature.

The film itself is a melange of styles, very Sparks-like. There are several different kinds of animation, 2-D cartoons, claymation, collage, loads of clips from tv appearances and concerts over the years, of course the modern interviews, and it seems like everything was tossed into the air and left to land where it may, but it was definitely carefully constructed, nothing could fit together that perfectly without a lot of thought. I’ll say it again, very Sparks-like.

On the other hand, the film is a march through the twenty-five albums, going through the timeline year by year, which is utterly fascinating, as we clearly see the progression of how and why they went from one thing to another, changing their style not to suit the times so much as to suit themselves. Sometimes they were in exact synch with the zeitgeist, but at other times way behind or looking ahead. They made an all-synth electronic dance album in 1979, they didn’t wait for the ‘80s, they led the way.

Edgar Wright poured all of his fanboy love into this movie, and, unlike many passion projects, the passion doesn’t overwhelm the subject, and brings the audience in to join the party. As one of the interviewees says, this isn’t the kind of fan base who says, “You don’t know SPARKS? Well, if you haven’t been a fan since the 1970s, too late,” but instead says, “You like that song? Welcome! There is SO MUCH MORE!”The theatre was remarkably full for a 9.30p screening on a Tuesday night that was going to get out after midnight. I was like, is this the Sparks fan screening? Is everyone going to know everything already? But when I walked out at the end, I heard several people say, “How have I never heard of this band?” so I think we all were drawn there for different reasons, but all came out wanting more.

Personally, I came out of the film saying, I am 56 years old and have wasted every single second of that time not being a Sparks fan. And also with a massive crush on Ron. There is footage of a concert with no security (I think they said that the venue didn’t pay them so they left in the middle of the show, but don’t quote me on it), and one of the talking head interviewees was like, “There I am! That’s me!” as we saw a girl fling herself around Ron’s neck as he was playing the keyboards. She said she regretted it, but I was like, give me a time machine and I will be you!This movie will not make Sparks fans of everyone who sees it, because some of them will have been Sparks fans already. But the rest of you, come in, welcome, there is SO MUCH MORE!

Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog