Before hearing about the existence of Edgar Wright’s upcoming music documentary, I was only familiar with two Sparks songs: their big hit “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us” and “Those Mysteries” — which, by the way, are both absolute bangers! I did additionally listen to Kimono My House (1974) in its entirety right before seeing the movie, and I had fun with it! But, that’s about the extent of my ear knowledge on the band’s discography; I just wanted to preference this before diving into my review, as certain factors such as this may have ultimately skewed my opinion on the film as opposed to huge fans of the band who are more likely to fall in love with Wright’s effort than I did.
This documentary is basically a 135-minute circle jerk for Sparks. What begins as initially enjoyable becomes progressively more and more repetitive once you realize that this entire movie is mainly a-list artists (who I admittedly geeked out at from time to time) trying to find as many synonyms as possible for “different” to describe the band’s next release, rarely deep-diving into the specifics that truly make the group’s work worth writing home about as something legendary like the film excessively amps them up to be when compared to their more popular contemporaries. Edgar Wright does occasionally keep things visually mesmeric with his b-roll combos of cinematic inserts or original animations, but that’s sadly — especially considering his rank — the few elements that set the movie’s execution apart from being anything beyond a serviceable scroll through the Sparks 25-album career.
Verdict: C+
2021 Ranked, Edgar Wright Ranked
“The Sparks Brothers” is now playing in select theaters.
Burning the Celluloid 
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