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Erika (17789 KP) rated The Sparks Brothers (2021) in Movies

Jun 25, 2021

When I first saw the preview for The Sparks Brothers, I was instantly intrigued, and eagerly counted down until the release date, 18 June. Then, when I checked the showtimes, I realized it was not playing at the theaters that had advertised it, and I would have to drive 45 minutes to see it. As luck would have it, I got an email at 2PM on Thursday from Focus Features, inviting me to an online screening that started at 7PM that same day.
The band ‘Sparks’, sounded familiar, but I couldn’t exactly remember where I knew them from. I decided to go into the documentary film blind because I wanted to enjoy it. Many of the talking heads in this documentary were some of my favorite musicians, like Beck, Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand, and Nick Rhodes and John Taylor from Duran Duran.
The Sparks Brothers are Ron and Russell Mael, who seem to be notoriously elusive. Honestly, the entire time, I didn’t know if these guys were being serious, or just messing with everyone. The documentary takes you through the brothers’ early life, then their massive, five-decade career. Apparently, all my favorite bands were inspired by the Mael bros, so that’s probably why their music sounded vaguely familiar in the movie trailer.
This is Edgar Wright’s first documentary, and I liked his approach. I watch a lot of documentary films, and sometimes they’re really hit or miss. Wright’s was a hit for me. It ebbed and flowed naturally and kept me engaged for the entire runtime of 2 hours and 15 minutes. The variety of talking heads was diverse, the brothers, musicians, actors, longtime fans, former producers and bandmates, as well as Wright himself, were all great contributors. I don’t think the Mael bros would have chosen to do a documentary with any other filmmaker, and that it was a true collaboration. It’s one of the best films I’ve seen this year, and I am so glad I got the invitation at the last minute.

Kudos

Chord Pickout - Get Chords for Any Song

Music and Education

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App

*** Top 10 Music app in many countries! Just load an audio file and you've got the chords. It's that...

Beat Time!

Music and Entertainment

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App

Beat Time plays audio & video and can change the tempo (time stretch) and/or pitch and does note &...

Touch Notation

Music

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App

Touch Notation is a powerful musical score creation app that allows anyone to enjoy writing music...

DoubleTune - Guitar Tuner

Music and Utilities

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App

DoubleTune is an advanced tuning app created by professional musicians. It’s suitable for tuning a...

Suswatibasu (1702 KP) rated The Noise of Time in Books

Oct 9, 2017 (Updated Oct 9, 2017)

The Noise of Time

Julian Barnes | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry

8.3

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Historical fiction at its very best

There is a huge amount of non-fiction elements of this bleak novel about one of Russia's most noted composers and musicians Dmitri Shostakovich, who fought inner demons for the majority of his life due to the immense pressures and threats posed by the Soviet Union.

From his complex relationships with women, to the government, the artist was forced to live a life of paranoia, after many of his fellow composers and musicologists mysteriously disappeared following talks with the "Power" at the Big House. There were many moments where it resembled Room 101 from George Orwell's 1984, and the oppressive atmosphere that Shostakovich had to live through.

In the end, Julian Barnes explains that agreeing to Stalin's and Khrushchev's demands had been the ultimate downfall to his health. and in many ways it was a fate worse than death. It is grim and tragic to think about such an important composer in history being treated in such way.

Kudos

LoSchussler (3 KP) rated Sweet Thing in Books

Jun 22, 2018

Sweet Thing

Renee Carlino | 2013 | Romance

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Mia Kelly thinks she has it all figured out. She's an Ivy League graduate, a classically trained pianist, and the beloved daughter of a sensible mother and offbeat father. Yet Mia has been stalling since graduation, torn between putting her business degree to use and exploring music, her true love.

When her father unexpectedly dies, she decides to pick up the threads of his life while she figures out her own. Uprooting herself from Ann Arbor to New York City, Mia takes over her father's cafe, a treasured neighborhood institution that plays host to undiscovered musicians and artists. She's denied herself the thrilling and unpredictable life of a musician, but a chance encounter with Will, a sweet, gorgeous, and charming guitarist, offers her a glimpse of what could be. When Will becomes her friend and then her roommate, she does everything in her power to suppress her passions—for him, for music—but her father's legacy slowly opens her heart to the possibility of something more.