Plot: What’s it about?
I’ve never been too big of a fan of documentaries. But I will say that, when done right, they can be just as emotional and perhaps more moving than any motion picture simply because a documentary is real whereas a film is a work of fiction. I think the last documentary I watched was the excellent The War Room about Pres. Bill Clinton’s road to the White House. I really have no interest in politics, but after watching the film, I felt I understood them a bit more. This is the case with Searching for Sugarman. I like music, which is to say that I listen to it, but I don’t have the deep-seeded passion for it that some do. I’d never heard of Rodriguez or Sugarman (who are actually the same person) and had it not been for this movie, my eyes wouldn’t have been opened to his world.
Director Malik Bendjelloul had a passion for this music and literally made it his mission to find one of the most highly-acclaimed artists of the 1970’s. He was compared to the likes of Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones and true fans thought he superseded them both. But as history has shown us, both the aforementioned artists have gone onto great careers and have never had to worry about money. This wasn’t the case with Rodriguez. Without giving too much away, Searching for Sugarman is the quest for Rodriguez. What happened to him? Why is his music only popular in South Africa and where in the world is he? Is he alive? How could one of the most notorious artists who could have had such a long career in music just simply vanish? This documentary tells the tale of everything above and more…and it’s not to be missed.
Video: How does it look?
It used to be that to make a movie, or one that at least looked somewhat professional, you needed money. You needed an expensive camera and all sorts of things to give your film a very unique look and feel. That’s no longer the case. While it’s true that this film was made with HD cameras, director Malik Bendjelloul actually ran short of money towards the end of shooting and actually used his iPhone for some of the shots in the movie. He used a $1.99 app from Apple’s App Store to give it a “70’s look and feel” (think of it as Instagram for video) and viola – you’ve got yourself a movie. Amazing. Having said that, the film has a mixture of “real” HD footage, namely with the subjects, mixed in with some vintage photography which does give the movie a very interesting look. It’s kind of hard to assign a score to this film since the two types of film contrast, but on the whole it does look good and it’s a testament to our technology that a film can look like this.
Audio: How does it sound?
The same can’t really be said for the audio which was very impressive. The DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack simply resonates through all of your channels and reproduces some of the songs in a way that’s hard to describe. For a documentary about music, it would be assumed that it should sound good, so thankfully that’s the case here. Vocals are in good form, with no loss or distortion that I could hear and the surrounds seem a bit more active than I thought they would be. This is a good thing though. Again, a low budget film benefits from the marvels of technology – this is a good-sounding mix from Sony, so while it won’t shatter the windows, it’s well worth the listen.
Supplements: What are the extras?
While not packed to the gills with supplements, there is a good offering to choose from and we’ll start off with the audio commentary by director Malik Bendjelloul and I’ll just say “a special guest” that deliver the goods on a technical level. The sheer amount of information here is impressive, so fans of the film will want to listen to this after the final credits roll. “Making SugarMan” is just that – a look at the film, how it came to be and some interviews with Malik Bendjelloul as well as his reaction to the film once it’d been released. “An Evening with Malik Bendjelloul and Rodriguez” again, is just that. The duo are interviewed at the Tribeca Film Festival and Rodriguez does a brief performance. The film’s theatrical trailer is also included.
