Premise: A documentary covering the career of the highly influential band Sparks.
This is a fan documentary. It's not made only for the fans. It's made by fans. And that comes with the good and the bad. I'd like to stay positive, so let's start with the good.
This movie is a full look at Sparks' career, from the 60s to the present. No era is left out. Director Edgar Wright smartly begins the film by covering all the standard questions people have about the brothers/band. It then goes in order through it all. There aren't any personal tragedies in their lives, so the doc pretty much just sticks to the music. It highlights assorted albums and songs. It charts their evolution. It makes a solid case for how influential they were and are. The "your favorite band's favorite band" moniker actually feels legitimate. Many famous people come for interviews to add their two cents about the band. I had no idea who the band was going in (even though I realized in real time that I owned that Franz Ferdinand collaboration album), and now I'm excited to check them out. This is the documentary that fans of any band wish their favorite bad would get.
The bad is about what you'd expect. The movie feels a little long. For non-fans especially, this goes into more detail than it needs to. There wasn't that much need for detail past the 80s, in all honesty. I mean, if I was watching a Rolling Stones documentary, would I really need them to stop and talk about Bridges to Babylon? It's cool that Sparks is still churning out music and doing crazy stuff like playing concerts for all of their albums over consecutive nights. It just isn't nearly as fun as those first could decades.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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