Growing up in the '60s, Los Angeles brothers Ron and Russell got by on a heavy diet of popcorn matinees and pop music until the spotlight of school talent shows illuminated their way on a musical journey as Sparks and spawned 25 studio albums. Edgar Wright's vision brings five decades of invention to life through animations and interviews, digging deeply into the band's rich, career-spanning archival.... (Full plot summary below)
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Growing up in the '60s, Los Angeles brothers Ron and Russell got by on a heavy diet of popcorn matinees and pop music until the spotlight of school talent shows illuminated their way on a musical journey as Sparks and spawned 25 studio albums. Edgar Wright's vision brings five decades of invention to life through animations and interviews, digging deeply into the band's rich, career-spanning archival.
Leave your thoughts about The Sparks Brothers.
| The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeFrom bucket-of-water tomfoolery to visually inventive biography and witty musicology, this really does have something for the girl with everything. |
| RogerEbert.comBrandon TownsOnce again, Edgar Wright has proven himself to be the master of whimsical filmmaking. Never I have seen a documentary as fun as Wright's The Sparks Brothers, which is thrilling from beginning to end. |
| The PlaylistRodrigo PerezTransmitting such a deep and moving paean of a band, the music they’ve created, the complex humans behind it, and bow-down respect for the long-haul resilience they’ve demonstrated over years of ups and downs, Wright presents a movie like a superdeluxe mixtape gift, adorned with loving attention to detail, gorgeous artwork, footnotes, and other bells and whistles, that is extremely easy to fall head over heels for regardless of your conversant knowledge of the band or its odd, but catchy music. |
| SlashfilmEthan AndertonThis portrait of Sparks is just as lighthearted and delightful as the music you’ll be tapping your toe to throughout the entire movie. As soon as the movie is over, you’ll probably be adding Sparks songs to your streaming playlists and hoping that this won’t be the last time that Edgar Wright feels compelled to give us a deep dive into one of his favorite musical acts. |
| Los Angeles TimesGlenn WhippIf you care about Sparks, this movie is heaven, a long-overdue answer to the group’s 1994 song “When Do I Get to Sing ‘My Way.’” (With this doc, Ron and Russell have to feel, at least a little bit, “like Sinatra felt.”) If you don’t know about Sparks, Wright has created an introduction that gleefully demolishes any barrier you might think you have toward their music. |
| Arizona RepublicEd MasleyIt's not a short documentary, running just shy of two hours and 21 minutes. But it never quite feels like it's dragging, owing in part to the offbeat sense of humor but also the sense of discovery. |
| Paste MagazineJacob OllerThe Sparks Brothers is a thorough and charming assessment and appreciation of an idiosyncratic band, and the highest praise you could give it is that it shares a sensibility with its inimitable musicians. |
| Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerWhat Wright makes us understand is that it's never really been that hard to understand Sparks. Plus, "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us" is a stone-cold classic. |
| Boston GlobeTy BurrNow “the best British band to ever come out of America” gets the documentary treatment from director Edgar Wright, himself a cheeky bugger (Sean of the Dead, Baby Driver), and it is superbly entertaining whether you love Sparks, hate them, or just have never heard of them. |
| Washington PostAnn HornadayBeyond the music itself, The Sparks Brothers offers viewers a bracing example of musical curiosity and extraordinary resilience — not to mention the singular pleasure of working at your craft long enough to be accused of ripping off the acts who have been stealing from you for 50 years. The Maels live. And living Mael is the best revenge. |
