BEFORE: This is another film that played at AMC last fall, while I was working there. BUT, I never took the time to watch the film, except I saw the closing credits a few dozen times, when I was getting ready to sweep the theater. So, I just put the film on my list and decided to make an effort to watch it when my Summer Rock & Doc Block came around again.
This is pretty much where I find myself, after three or four years of watching documentaries about rock, pop and other musical figures. I started with documentaries about the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Chicago, The Eagles, Janis Joplin, Chuck Berry, Joe Cocker, George Michael, Michael Jackson, James Brown, David Bowie, The Who, The Beach Boys, Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister, Metallica and Rush - got a lot done that first year. The next year, 2019, I didn't watch any rockumentaries, because I'd covered so many the previous year - that year I watched docs about Mr. Rogers, Jane Fonda, Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, Richard Pryor, Gilbert Gottfried, Lance Armstrong, Eliot Spitzer, Roger Stone, Steve Jobs, Ed Koch, Joan Didion and the Apollo 11 astronauts. In 2020 I returned to form and watched docs about Bob Dylan, The Band, David Crosby, John Lennon, Whitney Houston and Motown artists - then last year it was Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Tina Turner, The Bee Gees, The Go-Go's, Pavarotti, Joan Jett, and Frank Zappa.
Now, I'm down to acts like Rick James, and Sparks Brothers, among others (to be revealed over the next few weeks). This is where I find myself - I'm not really a Rick James fan, and I can't tell you one song performed by Sparks. So, then WHY am I watching this? Besides the reason mentioned above, that I almost watched this one in theaters, there are some very cool people in this documentary that I know personally, like in the real world. And one of them is the band's ex-drummer, she's married to an animator who's a friend of my boss, and I know them from San Diego Comic-Con, they came and visited our booth every year, back when we had one. And if Weird Al and Patton Oswalt like these guys, well, surely there must be something there, right?
Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Erasure) and Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) carry over from "New Wave: Dare to Be Different". And a quick birthday SHOUT-out to Jason Schwartzman, who was interviewed for this documentary. OK, his birthday was yesterday, June 26, but I started watching the film (it's long) late on that date, and finished in the early morning.
THE PLOT: A musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with Ron and Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks.
AFTER: Look, I don't know very much about the music industry, how it all works, I'll admit that. But any band that's been around for over 40 years, they must be doing SOMETHING right, even if not every album or song is a hit, even if they've had some failures from time to time, they're persistent, if nothing else. And the Sparks Brothers have re-invented themselves and their sound about a dozen times, so there's that, they've always been willing to try something new, there's always some risk involved in art, whether you're a filmmaker, a painter or a musician, and you have to keep your art changing for it to feel alive and current, right?
Looking back at the Rick James documentary, how he spent decades moving from city to city, from band to band, working at Motown for years trying to develop his sound, then hitting the road for California because there seemed to be a better vibe out there - he was constantly failing, but he was failing upwards, if that's possible. And failing didn't mean giving up, he stuck with it until he found his place in the music industry, or the music industry was ready to accept him, whichever. The story of Sparks feels somewhat equivalent, a lot of failing but never giving up, constantly working even if it seemed like maybe things weren't working out - that's not a reason to quit, it became a reason to work harder, and for them to try something different and re-invent themselves yet another time. That has to garner some form of respect, even if the Mael Brothers never got super-rich or had that one "Sgt. Pepper"-like album that broke wide among a mainstream audience.
So this songwriting/performing duo, Ron and Russell Mael, has to be important SOMEHOW, if for no other reason than the fact that they've been around for so long, and seen it all, probably twice. And as the poster points out, they've been so influential on other musicians that Sparks is probably YOUR favorite band's favorite band. Would there even be a Joy Division, a New Order, a They Might Be Giants, dare I say even a "Weird Al" Yankovic, if there hadn't been a Sparks? The world may never have to find out, because there WAS a Sparks. IS a Sparks. And somehow they bridge that gap between the 1960's rock of the Beach Boys, Doors, The Who, The Kinks and the synth-pop of the 1980's, like Kraftwerk, Devo, The Smiths and The Cure.
However, that being said, if it weren't for the fact that I've met their drummer several times, I might not know that this IS a real band. The documentary is so out there in its presentation, and combine that with the fact that I've never heard ONE of their songs IRL, and it wouldn't be TOO hard to believe that this is all a put-on, that all the footage here is faked or was recently filmed and then made to look old. Do you remember that part of the "This is Spinal Tap" mockumentary, when the interviewer keeps listing all of the band's albums, and the reviews, and then the band responds to each one by saying, "OK, that wasn't our best album..." or "We were all so high when making that album..." Well, the majority of this movie reminds me of that scene - and it takes over an hour to go through EVERY Sparks album, because there are 25 of them, and then there's concert footage of songs from that album, or a clip of them on "American Bandstand" (could all be faked...) and this gets tedious rather quickly, especially if you're not already a fan of the band.
But I'll champion the band's right to make and play whatever kind of music they want, for as long as they want - "rock star" is not a job that anybpdy wants to retire from, because why would they? Mick Jagger's still out there touring, isn't he? And he's like 100 years old by now, with no plans to quit. So why can't Sparks keep going, too? Or stop for a while, if they want to? It doesn't really matter to me. I suppose I should try to stick to musicians I cared about, because the Sparks music in this film just left me kind of cold. Advice to myself, I suppose, to stay in my own lane.
Also starring Ron Mael, Russell Mael, Jack Antonoff, Fred Armisen (last heard in "The Mitchells vs the Machines"), Scott Aukerman, Beck (last seen in "The Circle"), Andy Bell (Erasure), Tosh Berman, Björk, Les Bohem, Roddy Bottum (Faith No More), Bernard Butler, Adam Buxton, Alex Casnoff, John Congleton, Pamela Des Barres (last seen in "Zappa"), Chris Difford (Squeeze), Larry DuPont, Harley Feinstein, Flea (last heard in "Toy Story 4"), Jake Fogelnest, Neil Gaiman, Mark Gatiss (last seen in "The Father"), Gillian Gilbert (New Order), Ian Hampton, Christi Haydon, Nick Heyward, Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand), James Lowe, Earle Mankey, Dean Menta, Hilly Michaels, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Paul Morley (The Art of Noise), Giorgio Moroder, Stephen Morris (New Order), Mike Myers (last seen in "Spielberg"), Stevie Nistor, Patton Oswalt (last seen in "Eternals"), Daniel Palladino, Katie Pucknic, April Richardson, Lance Rock, Jonathan Ross, Todd Rundgren, Jason Schwartzman (last heard in "My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea"), Amy Sherman-Palladino, John Taylor (Duran Duran), Tony Visconti, Martyn Ware (Human League), Jane Wiedlin (last seen in "The Go-Go's"), Muff Winwood, Edgar Wright, "Weird Al" Yankovic (last seen in "Bill & Ted Face the Music"), and the voices of Simon Pegg (last seen in "Scream 4"), Nick Frost (ditto)
with archive footage of Chuck Berry (last seen in "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band"), James Brown (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Tim Burton, Belinda Carlisle (last seen in "The Go-Go's"), Dick Clark (last seen in "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project"), Roger Daltrey (last seen in "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"), Doris Day (last seen in "Tina"), Danny DeVito (last seen in "The Virgin Suicides"), Adam Driver (last seen in "House of Gucci"), Jean-Luc Godard, Bill Haley, Bob Harris, George Harrison (last seen in "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"), Billy Idol (also carrying over from "New Wave: Dare to Be Different"), Mick Jagger (last seen in "Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James"), John Lennon (last seen in "The One and Only Dick Gregory"), Jerry Lee Lewis, Chico Marx, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney (last seen in "Tina"), Elvis Presley (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Molly Ringwald (last seen in "Not Another Teen Movie"), George Segal (last seen in "Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg"), Talia Shire (last seen in "Dreamland" (2016)), Donna Summer (last seen in "Bad Reputation"), Ringo Starr (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Jacques Tati, Pete Townshend (last seen in "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"), Liv Ullmann (last seen in "Autumn Sonata"), Shelley Winters (last seen in "The Portrait of a Lady")
RATING: 4 out of 10 snow globes
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