It's now on Netflix. And it starts out so good, but then...
If you read the reviews when it was released in theatres back in June, if you were privy to the insider buzz, you'd think "The Sparks Brothers" is the "Citizen Kane" of rock documentaries, that the band finally gets its due. And I felt this was the case at the beginning, and then...
This is not a slapdash documentary. This is an art film, with the interviews in black and white, it looks fantastic, but...
So we start out in Southern California. Illustrating the Mael brothers' roots. And this is incredibly well done. Just when I was wondering if the boys played sports, you see Russell as a quarterback. And then they both attend UCLA and talk about movies, being influenced by the art films, the foreign films of the era, and you start to kvell, it's a renaissance of what once was, a retelling, when there were no popcorn/tentpole/blockbuster movies, when no one but insiders knew the gross, when it was about testing limits.
And then there's the start of the band and the link between them and Todd Rundgren via Miss Christine. It's history come alive! But then...
I mean the movie starts out as hagiography, talking heads that would make you believe Sparks was as big and influential and noteworthy as well...the Talking Heads! There's no context, this is a tribute movie. Like that BeeGees doc that played on HBO. No, the BeeGees were not as big as the Beatles in the sixties, they were not revered, they were second-tier singles makers, sorry to burst your bubble. And Sparks, then named Halfnelson, come out of the Beatle boom, when everybody was forming a band, but by time they get their record deal times were different. Truth is the touchy-feely mind trip records came out in the late sixties, by time the seventies hit the focus was on bombast and commercialism. Of course there are exceptions, but I'm talking trends, generalities here. So Sparks was out of time. But they did have the benefit of Rundgren, and ultimately after switching labels to Island, they had a hit, "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us." And they were much bigger in England, but the album "Kimono My House" did gain traction in the U.S. with hipsters and...
Then they reference KROQ, which truly blew up Sparks in America in the early eighties.
And then there was that duet with Jane Wiedlin in the MTV era, "Cool Places," and then...
HOW DID THESE GUYS STAY ALIVE? WHERE WAS THE MONEY COMING FROM? WHO ARE THEY? ARE THEY MARRIED, DO THEY HAVE CHILDREN?
At the end of the film, Ron says all you need to know is in their records, but yeah, I'm gonna listen to TWENTY FIVE ALBUMS???
To be honest, I almost fell asleep twice in the last forty five minutes. It was just endless. Maels hunker down, change direction, make a new album and are back! Then repeat. This is the whole damn movie. They cover each and every album, it's for fans only.
If you're not a fan, you won't be when it is over, assuming you can get through it.
There are lessons, how if you want to sustain you must change, when the audience, hard core fans, don't want you to, but...
Beck. Is he really that big a Sparks fan, or is he included just for marquee value. As for all musicians on buses ultimately talking about Sparks, well...no. Absolutely not! As a matter of fact, the only people I know who ever talk about Sparks are the Rhino Records crew, the Jewish suburbanites who didn't play, at least not commercially successfully, but lived for the music nonetheless. And the Maels had Jewish roots, why not mention that, afraid of turning viewers off, the anti-Semitic? The band has Jewish values. There's the humor, the desire not to conform, to do it your way, it's evident throughout but never mentioned.
In other words, "The Sparks Brothers" is totally surface. It's an amazing surface level job. You'll see and hear more than you ever wanted to know. But you won't know how the band fits in context, you won't know so much!
Making a living in music is nearly impossible. Some of the biggest acts in the history of the industry are working day jobs. Everybody's got to eat. And even when they're making their first album, even when they're on "American Bandstand," the Mael brothers are living on government assistance, i.e. food stamps. Living only got more expensive, were they on the dole, how can Ron afford that house?
Almost nobody can afford to follow the Maels' route. You lose your deal. Live business is anemic and...
The Maels stayed home and recorded for six years, not appearing publicly, no albums, no tours... How did they keep going, how did they LIVE?
It pains me to write this ultimately negative review, because I'm a believer, in rock and roll, in the triumph of outsiders. You can love this film on the surface, but is it really that good? It's made incredibly well, but when you go below the surface? I'd much rather pile on and tell you how great it is, on Rotten Tomatoes it's got a 95 and a 98. But those are all fans, critics who live in the dark, who are pulling for the underdog. And the truth is most people are not like them, which is why Sparks is relatively unknown underdog, at least to the youth.
But the saddest and one of the greatest parts of the film is the testimony from Gary Stewart, who is no longer with us. I knew Gary, to tell you the truth I didn't think he was that intellectual, now I know I was wrong. But the rock and roll dream ended for Gary, there's no place for an A&R guy in his sixties, he ran out of jobs and then...
So I'm not saying you shouldn't watch "The Sparks Brothers." If you're a fan, it's a must-see. And if you've got the desire, go for it. But if your time is limited but you're susceptible to hype, don't go there. Or watch the first half. I won't say I want my entire two and a half hours back, then again when I finished it it was dark out and the afternoon was gone.
Hell, I'd like to do a podcast with the Maels, find out who they really are. But maybe they wouldn't even open up with me. Especially now that I pissed them off by not granting a vigorous thumbs-up to their movie. But I still want to know their story. Really, how did they SURVIVE?
P.S. Will they stop releasing these rock docs in theatres? That's when they get all the buzz, and when they finally hit the flat screen there's no noise, I didn't know "The Sparks Brothers" was on Netflix, I stumbled on it. You want to start the entire audience at the same time, so we can talk about your project, cultural currency is what you're looking for, which is the hardest thing to achieve these days. You've got to make the barrier low. As for going to a theatre during Covid? NO WAY!
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