SXSW 2021: The Sparks Brothers
Edgar Wright’s passion for music equals, or comes close to, his passion for filmmaking. That’s evident in his filmography—the track selections in everything from Shaun of the Dead to The World’s End are eclectic, as he’s seemingly digging deeper into his massive catalog of music. That passion was shown to its fullest extent in Baby Driver, a symphonic playlist projected on screen, with deep cuts used as score, pulsing through each action sequence. It was no surprise that his first endeavor into documentaries would cover a band, but at first glance that choice of which band might be a head-scratcher for some. Coming into Edgar Wright’s Sparks documentary, appropriately called The Sparks Brothers, you might ask, “Who are Sparks?” Don’t worry, Wright has you covered.
The presumption The Sparks Brothers makes is that you, the audience, have limited-to-no knowledge of Sparks, who are made up of brothers Ron Mael and Russell Mael and an ever-changing lineup of backup band members. They’ve been around since the late ‘60s and have recorded 25 albums to date. That assumption that I would have no idea who Sparks are would be correct in this case—yes, I didn’t know of Sparks until about a few months ago when I learned Wright made a documentary of them.
If you’re a diehard Sparks fan, I can’t imagine this movie will give you any big revelations—which is by design, I think. While you do get some semi-candid looks into how the brothers work, this isn’t so much a deep dive into the Mael brothers as it is an introduction to them—one of the first segments actually covers the basic question, “Who are Sparks?” With a runtime of two hours and 20 minutes, Wright makes the choice of letting Sparks’ work speak for itself, going mostly album by album, single by single, in chronological order, interviewing former band members from the group’s different incarnations. And, of course, like other talking head docs, Wright also interviews fans of the band ranging from celebrities like Jason Schwartzman and Michael Myers, to music producers, writers, and musicians, featuring the likes of Beck, Flea, and Björk, all spouting the greatness of Sparks.
The Sparks Brothers is a music documentary through and through, before going through their discography, we go back to the Maels’ origins, growing up in California, their family upbringing, and them forming the first incarnation of their group, Halfnelson. Wright plays around with the documentary format, with rapid-cut montages mixing together archival footage of the decades the albums were released with behind-the-scenes, sometimes intimate, videos and photos of the band themselves. There are various reenactment segments using traditional animation and stop-motion animation—like Sparks, The Sparks Brothers plays with the medium in as many ways as possible. Wright also uses some hilarious sight gags when crediting various talking heads—he himself appears on camera credited as ‘Edgar Wright: Fanboy’. The playful nature of the documentary succeeds in getting across the playful nature of Sparks, with Wright infusing his own wit to liven the retracing of the band’s already vibrant history.
While it’s a tad long in runtime in terms of documentaries, there are a lot of points where the film could have expanded on certain aspects of Sparks' career. There’s an entire section devoted to the Sparks-Franz Ferdinand supergroup FFS, which is insightful in how Sparks once again reinvented themselves, gaining even more fans. But the doc doesn’t spend enough time on certain projects like The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, their radio musical concept album/live play, which is intriguing considering the brothers’ early obsession with the classic films—the more I read about it, the more I wish Wright dug deeper. But that’s the thing about Sparks, it’s impossible to fit into one documentary everything that makes them uniquely influential and ever experimental; even making them the subject of a limited series might not cover all of it. We see the highs and lows of their career, their constant reinvention, their influence, their fans, their future (a quick glimpse at their upcoming film Annette) and the brothers themselves in front of the camera, and we’re left to decide whether or not we like them—the closing montage reiterating how amazing Sparks are feels like a desperate plea because we’re entirely sold at that point or not. One thing is clear, though, the film does its job and I now know who Sparks are. When it comes to whether I like them or not, The Sparks Brothers succeeds there, too: I am now a Sparks fan.
