The Sparks Brothers

Edgar Wright's first documentary, about a band that has worked for fifty years and made more than twenty-five albums without ever becoming famous: Sparks. Ron and Russell Mael are brothers. Russell sings, Ron sits at the keyboard and does not smile. Every decade the band changed its style completely: glam rock, electronic disco, symphonic pop, opera. Which is why they never belonged to one audience, and why they never sold enough. The documentary treats this not as a story of failure but of survival: continuing to do your own work for half a century. Wright spoke to more than eighty people, musicians, directors and comedians. The form is deliberately scattered: archive, animation, reconstruction and talking straight to camera. It runs close to two hours and fifteen minutes. A treasure for anyone who listens to Sparks. For anyone who does not, it is long and its album-by-album structure can tire, though it is still a good way in for someone who knows none of the songs.