DOCUMENTARY - SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

Aight so yo. I was lurking on Facebook wondering why everyones life seems so much more exciting than mine, and i stumbled upon this documentary. Then i watched it. Now im writing about it cos it was quite good. 

Its about this dude named Rodriguez and his musical endeavours in the late 60's and early 70's. Some music guys find him in a smoky burnt out Detroit bar, playing with his back to the audience all mysterious like. So it goes that they sign him and he releases two albums, and these albums flop and he's kinda reabsorbed by the smoky clouds that spawned him. The thing is though, that the songs he put out were all pretty decent, with lyrics on par with, if not better than the huge singer songwriters around at the time - Bob Dylan and the like.

His music makes its way overseas however, specifically to South Africa, he becomes the soundtrack to rebellion against apartheid. Basically he's da man over there, and everyone has his record and digs his music. But no-one knows who the fuck he is. This prompts two guys to look for answers, and to search for Sugar Man. The documentary details their attempt to track down Rodriguez, and to find out if the rumours of his extravagant on-stage suicide are true.

The thing about Searching For Sugar Man is that the story completely carries itself. Aside from a few cool animated shots, and interwoven archive footage, its just a straight up interesting story. A multitude of key figures, musicians, and studio execs are interviewed and each segment strengthens the mystery surrounding a guy who was "Bigger than the Rolling Stones" in South Africa, but as famous as someone like me (or you- prick).

The fact that the music is pretty tight also helped me enjoy this documentary, and his tunes are systematically incorporated into the flick, throughout its duration- they really help you to get a feel for the kind of voice this guy had- and its a good one. 

Without spoiling the ending (they all die en-route to South Africa, tragically) its definitely a story that has genuine weight, and quite an amazing finale, with everything being tied up quite nicely; the basic mystery is solved, Rodriguez remains somewhat of an enigma. I want to say its heart-warming, but i don't have a heart and heat makes me queasy.

4 OL'DIRTY BASTARDS OUTTA 5