June 30, 2021

Film

What’s up, Doc?

BVC checks out a new documentary on a historied cult band and a fuzzy bunny sequel By Br yan VanC ampe n

W

alking into Edgar Wright’s first documentary “The Sparks Brothers” (Focus FeaturesMRC-Complete Fiction Pictures, 2021, 140 min.), I confess I thought that Sparks was a one-hit wonder ‘80s new wave band, having only heard “Cool Places,” their 1983 collaboration with Jane Wiedlin. Little did I know that Sparks — Ron and Russell Mael — have been around since the late ‘60s in conjunction with other players. If you show me a documentary about the Beatles or Monty Python, you’re preaching to the choir, as I feel I know a lot about them. But I love learning about stuff I knew nothing about, and “The Sparks Brothers” is a great crash course. And now I have decades of records to appreciate, thanks to the movie; I was talking to one of my co-workers after the fact, and he told me that he thinks “Kimono My House” (1974) is one of the greatest albums ever recorded.

Edgar Wright brings the same energy, humor and visual wit to his first doc that he brought to previous films like “Shaun of the Dead,” “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” and “The World’s End.” There’s plenty of archival footage from rock TV shows like “American Bandstand” and “Top of the Pops” but Wright uses lots of film clips and different styles of animation to tell the history of Sparks. The Maels have plenty to say in addition to early producer Todd Rundgren, many Sparks side musicians from over the years, and celebrity fans like Beck, Patton Oswalt, Flea, Jason Schwartzman, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Mike Myers, Fred Armisen and Neil Gaiman. ● ● ●

Having suffered through “Tom and Jerry” this year, I know just how poorly a beloved fictional character that everyone loves can devolve into corporate intellectual property that no one really cares about: “Eh, just put the cat and mouse into a dumb Chloe Grace Moretz hotel farce.” Believe me, “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” (Sony Pictures Animation, 2021, 93 min.) and its predecessor “Peter Rabbit” (2018) could have been so much worse. Beatrix Potter fans should be happy that director Will Gluck and cast and crew have managed to preserve so much of Potter’s 1901 watercolor English country whimsy, melded with a Pythonesque sense of comedy that doesn’t feel sweaty or forced.

The movie opens with the wedding of Bea (Rose Byrne) and Thomas McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson), with Peter Rabbit (James Corden) and many other animals in attendance. Bea and Thomas now run a maternity shop, and she has self-published the very first Peter Rabbit book, which attracts the interest of a massive publishing house run by Nigel Basil-Jones (David Oyelowo). Peter gets fed up with Thomas blaming him for things he didn’t do, and takes off on larcenous adventures with an “Oliver Twist”-styled street gang. Movies, especially sequels like “Peter Rabbit 2” never get extra credit for being clever, but Peter’s runaway storyline is nicely balanced by Bea’s dilemma in selling her book to corporate interests. The movie manages to have its carrots and eat them too—Bea frets about the dumb, actionoriented story that Oyelowo wants, and then does exactly that in the film’s frenetic third act. It does so without losing the characters and the comedy. Over the course of two movies, I’ve really come to appreciate the wacky comedic chemistry between Byrne and Gleeson. When they’re doing their heightened daft Johnand-Martha routines, you’re never tempted to run to the concession stand for a head of cabbage and some French beans.

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