Movie review: Searching for Sugar Man directed by Malik Bendjelloul

Release date: 2012

Directed by : Malik Bendjelloul

Genre: documentary

Synopsis:

What do you need to become a world-wide famous musician? A good voice? A talent? A great personality? Agents who believe in you ? A guitar?  Sixto Rodriguez had it all. Even now his songs really resonate with inner beauty – their lyrics are deep and sad, their music makes you want to sing along and rock. Back in the seventies they must have been like a lightning and thunder. Only they weren’t.

 His first longplay record was released in 1970. It should have launched Rodriguez on a brilliant career, allowing him to go to the very top, among  Jimi Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Beatles. Somehow it didn’t.  Maybe because of his Latino name. Maybe because he lived in Detroit. Maybe because he was not a showman. Overall he released two albums: Cold Fact and Coming From Reality; then his company, Sussex Recordings, dropped him off the label and he disappeared from the scene.  Some people claimed he committed a suicide during a flop concert. Some people said he overdosed drugs in a prison. Nobody really knew anything.

 However one of his vinyl records somehow found its way to the Republic of South Africa and it became a big hit there. People simply adored Rodriguez – his albums were sold in millions of copies and his songs were being listened to everywhere. However his South African fans knew nothing, literally nothing, about the singer they loved so much, not even the most basic facts. Small wonder some of them decided to look for him and solve the mystery surrounding his persona. Who was he? What was his real name? Did he have a family, a wife, children? What really happened to him? This documentary is about their incredible search for the truth about Rodriguez and a career which never was.

My impressions:

I completely agree – this documentary deserves and Oscar. It is an incredible story, told in an engaging way, illustrated with great music, sad and uplifting at the same time. What’s more, it is not fiction. 

Still the best thing about this movie is a message it conveys: no matter what your job is if you do it the right way you are not wasting your time - you are creating something special and worthwhile.  You’re an artist. Perhaps you won’t be able to reap the rewards of your efforts immediately, maybe not even during your lifetime, which is of course very sad, but still you’ve done something good which might have a positive influence over people living in a country you’ve never visited in a way nobody can predict. There is never enough positive influence around, right?

I really don’t have much more to say  apart from this: go (or order) and see this movie. You won’t regret it.

Final verdict:

An incredible documentary; a must for all 70’s music fans but I recommend it to everybody.