The Sparks Brothers

Director:              Edgar Wright

Producers:          Edgar Wright, Nira Park, George Hencken, Laura Richardson

Story:                    How can one rock band be successful, underrated, hugely influential, and criminally overlooked all at the same time? Take a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron and Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.

Who are these guys? Sparks are the 70s glam band who recorded “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us”. They are the synth pop duo who created the seminal “No.1 In Heaven” album with Giorgio Moroder. They are the nu-wave band who had a hit in the States with Jane Wieldin (of the Go-Go’s) called “Cool Places” in 1983. They are the Europop band who scored a top ten single in Germany with “When Do I Get To Sing ‘My Way’” in the 90s. They are the two brothers who formed a supergroup with Franz Ferdinand called F.F.S in 2015. More recently, they are the duo who have released two UK top ten albums since 2017. Despite this, you probably still don’t know who I’m talking about. Well. Edgar Wright’s ‘The Sparks Brothers’ is here to make sure you know all about Sparks.

Wright needs less of an introduction than Ron and Russell Mael. This is his first major work since the brilliant “Baby Driver” in 2017 and his first documentary. Wright’s skills are well suited to the format. The Sparks Brothers moves at a frenetic pace, making use of archival footage and witty animated vignettes as Wright covers every single one of Sparks eras and 25 albums. All the successes and failures receive equal attention in this movie.

The documentary makes use of a large number of talking heads ranging from Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Jack Antonoff, Beck, Vince Clark, Fred Armisen, Alex Kapranos, Jason Schwartzman, Flea and so on. They will tell you how absolutely wonderful Sparks are because Edgar Wright wants this to be a total celebration of Sparks’ career. The running time of 140 mins eases by due to Wright’s quick edits and playfulness with the subject. The length of the documentary and the fawning might be overbearing for some, but the humour sustains the momentum of the picture.

Wright never probes too deeply into the personal lives of the brothers. Is there a need, when you have 25 albums and a 50 year career to cover? In the opening moments of the movie, we hear the brothers discuss the tragic loss of their father when they were young boys. We also hear of their disillusionment in the early 90s after a combination of albums that had failed to register much interest and a failed movie project ‘Mai The Psychic Girl’, which Tim Burton had signed up for, only to pull out of later. These are the most vulnerable and striking moments of an otherwise uplifting, frantic movie.

The Sparks story lacks the typical rock’n’roll cliches. No drug horrors or no dramatic fall-outs. The Sparks story is that of conviction and resilience. Wright shows two brothers who have stayed true to their values and their vision. When they had successful records, they often changed their direction immediately in search of something new. When they had a number of disappointing albums, they kept going into the studio every day to find a breakthrough.

The documentary, like Sparks, is uncompromising. The Sparks Brothers is an invitation to love Sparks. Although Sparks’ music will not be for everyone, Edgar Wright does a brilliant job at convincing you that you must listen to them. If you have even the slightest appreciation for their work, you are likely to be taken in by this funny and uplifting love letter.

Towards the end of the documentary we get a glimpse of the daily routine for Sparks. Both now in their 70s, their day comprises of coffee, exercise and recording music at the studio. Without revealing too much about Sparks outside of the music, the documentary leaves us with no illusions of what Sparks are doing today, what they will be doing tomorrow and what they will be doing next week.

‘Annette’ a movie-musical which they composed and created with Leos Carax debuted at Cannes recently and is due to be released worldwide in the coming weeks. In 2022, they are set to embark on their largest world tour. Work on their 26th album is already at advanced stage. Edgar Wright may soon have enough material for ‘The Sparks Brothers II’.

Rating : 4/5

Review by Evan O’Leary