If you want to understand Sparks, you have to watch old Hollywood movies, teaches The Sparks Brothers ★★★☆☆

Sparks, the headstrong pop band of the American brothers Ron (keyboards) and Russell Mael (vocals), doesn’t look like a bunch of musicians, more like ‘people who are allowed to go outside for a day’. If you want to understand them, you have to watch older Hollywood movies, teach The Sparks Brothers† Then it becomes clear, for example, that Ron’s narrow mustache winks at the look of Charlie Chaplin and has not so much to do with Adolf Hitler, as the viewers of Top of the Pops seemed to be thinking en masse during the first Sparks TV appearance in 1974 – even The Beatles.

music documentary The Sparks Brothers by filmmaker Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, himself briefly in front of the camera as a ‘fanboy’) presents itself as an infectious ‘fun fact’ parade, full of nice insights into Sparks’ sophisticated marriage between music and image. It hardly disturbs you that you are actually watching a roaring commercial: Ron and Russell are so resourceful and autonomous that they can be embraced effortlessly here.