The unknown superstar

Searching for Sugar Man(2012)

Sixto Rodriguez is a music superstar, bigger than Elvis or The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, but the weird thing is that he's only that big in South Africa. Rest of the world has no idea who he is as he made only two albums in Detroit at the beginning of the 70's which didn't sell at all and he was soon forgotten. That is except in South Africa where he became a legend and as no one there knew anything about him except for his music rumors started to spread and soon became “known” facts. One of those being that the man is dead. Two South African fans decide to find out who he was and what happened to him. The story in this one is actually quite brilliant, words like amazing and incredible would seem like an understatement. However this is not a brilliant documentary. The problem is how it's constructed. The biggest twist to the story comes around the half way of the film and after that it actually sets more questions than answers them. I kind of understood that they wanted to leave a bit of mystery around the character, but still there were so many juicy topics they could have covered more deeply. So in the end I was at the same time amazed but yet disappointed. Amazed about the story but still disappointed about the structure and focus of the documentary. Technically I didn't find anything wrong with it, it looked good even though there were quite a bit of old amateur video material in there as well, but it fit in there very well. Also it was very “approachable” as in easy viewing even if you're not a huge music fan and if you are then you will get even more out of it. I have to rate this as a good documentary even though it was somewhat poorly made direction wise.

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The true heart of punk music

The Punk Syndrome (2012)

I missed this one at the theaters, even though I heard praises about it, just never found time for it and I usually tend to push documentaries out of the way of other movies. So yesterday it got the TV premiere here in Finland and I surely wasn't going to miss it this time. For all the Finns who missed it, you can still watch it for the next 6 days here. For everyone else I guess you have to wait for it to come to a film festival near you or DVD/BR release. And trust me it's definitely worth the wait. So what's the film all about? It's about the greatest punk band in the history of punk, called Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät. It follows the band from the first steps to stardom, including all the conflicts between the members, whether they are musical differences or simply just not liking how someone is looking at you. Even though these guys are hard core to the bone, there's also friendship as a glue to keep this powerhouse together and the women of course. Their songs have the essence of punk in them. Pulling no punches on subjects like prejudices, government corruption, institutionalization and unfair bureaucracy. Not to forget subjects like coffee after the sunday church or pedicures. How could it ever be more punk than that? When these guys hit the stage old ladies look in fear and the fans go apeshit crazy pounding their fists in the air while the whole venue shakes from the power of the music. These guys are pure punk! Oh and they are all mentally disabled.

I can't really rate this with anything else than the top score as it's just perfect for me. That being said though there are some problems with this documentary, especially for people outside Finland, as it doesn't explain anything, it just follows. So I can understand people losing track on what's going on, like on the elections, political parties, independence day ceremonies and such. But it's not really that important, the most important part you'll definitely get, though be warned it might change you into a punk rocker. Another thing this film leaves out is the origin story, where did this band come from, but it's not really needed. If the film got you interested, you can find out those details yourself and that's part of the beauty of this documentary. You could compare it to a documentary following a year with for example the Rolling Stones, you don't need to know where they came from, you either like them or you don't. All I can say is that I love this band.

100%