Postindustrialman

Enjoyable but it did not really do it for me- I am a fan and I will always love This Town.. and Number One Song.. for example, but this was a very straightforward/ celebratory fan documentary that promised something far more in the build up and did not deliver for me. There was a miss match here- Edgar Wright, a maker of quirky but still very mainstream//genre style films makes a film for the Mael Brothers who are clearly as close to conceptual artist's as they are to musicians and who confess to being 'in love' with the French New Wave and Godard etc.. However what you got was the usual linear autobiography, starting and ending with family photos and all these talking heads saying repeatedly that they had re-invented themselves against the odds. I had to look away when the drummer from 'Sparks 3' cried because the lads had to work so hard at the coal face - writing and singing seven days a week! For sincerity has never been central to the Sparks canon. In the end we really learnt very little about them or more importantly about the music. How for example does a keyboard player write the Mick Ronson style riff to 'This Town'. How does he go about writing the wonderfully surreal lyrics and who influences his writing? What about that falsetto of Russell's- how does he keep it going at his age ? How does it compare with the falsettos of the Bee Gees or Queen or the later synth pop of Jimmy Somerville etc? What was their relationship with glam rock in 1974? Why were they more 'British' exactly ? All this was jettisoned in favour of the quick march through the songs, looks and album covers. Also they airbrushed Morrissey out of the story I guess because of the falling out around his comments in 2019 ? But he was part of that re-imagining as he invited them to his Meltdown in 2004 in the Royal Festival Hall when they were at a low ebb. This was a big gig for them and very much part of the Sparks narrative that this film wants to highlight. A more honest/objective film would make this the point where Sparks have to tie their colours to the mast. But that would let the mask slip- 'Lighten up Mael Bros' perhaps ?