Film
The Sparks Brothers
- Director
- Edgar Wright
- Certificate
- 15
- Running Time
- 141 mins
The real surprise here is why it’s taken so long for anyone to make a documentary about oddball siblings Russell (teen girl candy) and Ron (boggly eyes, Hitler moustache) Mael and their extraordinary career as Sparks. Having made such great use of classic rock in Baby Driver, Edgar Wright was clearly the director to do it.
His playful film charts the evolution and multiple reinventions of “your favourite band’s favourite band”, who are best remembered by those of a certain age for the hit single This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us from the 1974 album Kimono My House and their legendary Top of the Pops performance that accompanied it. Celeb fans as diverse as Flea, Beck, Jason Schwartzman and Neil Gaiman are among those queuing up to pay tribute. Reviews from the film’s Sundance Festival premiere were universally positive. “This is a film that loves its subjects and only someone with a biological revulsion to catchy pop or grand rock theatrics will dislike the film,” was The Guardian‘s verdict. Oh, and if you fancy a larf after watching this, dig out a copy of seventies disaster B-movie Rollercoaster, which features an extended, inexplicable Sparks cameo that they’ve described as the low point of their career but is actually great fun.
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