The Sparks Brothers

The Sparks Brothers is a documentary about Ron and Russell Mael, the brothers behind the American pop and rock duo Sparks. Across five decades the pair repeatedly reinvented their sound and image, releasing a long run of studio albums while influencing musicians who came after them. Edgar Wright directed the film and wrote its screenplay, working from his own long-standing enthusiasm for the band, and he produced it with Nira Park and George Hencken.

The film traces the duo's career from their beginnings in Los Angeles through the many phases that followed, combining archival material with conversations with the Maels themselves. A large supporting cast appears as themselves, among them Beck, Gary Stewart, Mike Berns and Jane Wiedlin, part of an extensive roster of interviewees drawn from music and related fields.

The Sparks Brothers was released in June 2021, the same year as Wright's Last Night in Soho and the eighth feature he directed, following Baby Driver. It runs 140 minutes and took about 1 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.8/10 from roughly 6,500 votes, and on TMDB 7.4/10 from about 107 votes. A critics' rating of 7.9/10 from 164 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores.