MovieChat Forums > Searching for Sugar Man (2012) Discussion > Some questions/flaws

Some questions/flaws

posted 12 years ago by globalist
9 replies | jump to latest

There's a couple of flaws/omissions in this docu that come to mind and all combined they make me feel like this is a little too fairytalish of a story, with some schmaltz added and some cold facts omitted, pulling some emotional strings for a Sundance viewerships benefit maybe?

1. How exactly does the musicologist/detective go from knowing that there's a town of Dearborn, Michigan mentioned in Rodriguez's lyrics to figuring out the name and getting the phone number of his producer in Detroit???

2. And then really, he's just gonna let some old geezer (Avant) go on a mad-man tangent in an interview where they are honestly asking where the money went? You're never going to investigate/ask any further seeing as you've come all this way (literally and figuratively)? Avant blew him away like a little snotty brat is what he did. And he didn't even have to try hard, lol. I'm not buying this.

3. Is it just me, or are they skimming too conveniently over too much of what exactly has happened to Rodriguez carreeer after his albums flopped and also after his resurgence in the 90s? I mean there's been a tour of Australia in the 80s, then some recent tours but they're making him out to be this all-but homeless hermit who only ever came out a few times for a SA tour?

4. On an unrelated note, what's with the face skin of older Mexicans? You see it on Rodriguez, his daugthers, Edward James Olmost, the mexican actor from The Wire, etc. - they all have these dimples/pox-like features on their cheeks skin and it makes me wonder is this some native thing? Honest question, thanks!

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[–] MuchToBeGratefulFor 12 years ago

1. The movie doesn't say exactly how the guy went from Dearborn to finding the producer, but does it have to spell it out? I'm sure it was nothing more glamorous than calling a million people in the music business in Detroit until he found the right guy.

2. It was very effective to let Avant go on a mad-man rant like that. The director basically gave Avant enough rope to hang himself.

3. After they give the story of his early promise and his albums flopping in the US, the story moves to South Africa, where the focus becomes how he was huge there but nobody knew anything about him. The story is about, as the title says, fans searching for the truth about "Sugar Man." And what happens when they track him down. That's where the director chose to focus his story, and I think it was very effective.

You must be the change you seek in the world. -- Gandhi

[–] globalist 12 years ago

1. For a docu that's making such a big deal of finding Rodriguez this was a critical omission. And a fact that would have been most interesting, as a final link in the investigation.

2. On one hand yes, on the other it makes the filmmaker look a bit lame IMO. Like a child that's been pestered (is that the correct word?).

3. Story was indeed effective but they could have at least mentioned Australia.

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[–] MuchToBeGratefulFor 12 years ago

1. For a docu that's making such a big deal of finding Rodriguez this was a critical omission. And a fact that would have been most interesting, as a final link in the investigation.

And on another thread, the poster was critical of the "drawn-out" scene where the guy shows how he looks up Dearborn in an atlas and finds on a map that it is a suburb of Detroit. The documentarian can't win here.

For me, knowing that the guy used the Dearborn clue to direct his search to Detroit, is enough for me.

You must be the change you seek in the world. -- Gandhi

[–] Felix-La-PuBelle 12 years ago

1. I don't recall. It may not have been mentioned.

2. I don't think it mattered. It wasn't really about the money as much as it was about the fact that the news of the success of his albums in SA never made it to Rodriguez himself via that channel.

3. They said nothing of him being a homeless hermit. They don't go into a lot of detail, but there's enough there to know he ended his professional career in music after his 2 albums, worked in construction all his life (which he claims he enjoys), and lived a simple life as he gave a lot of money away. He was also a college grad and active in political causes. They didn't talk about Australia, which a lot of people hate for some reason, but it wasn't really relevant to the particular story being told.

4. I'm not sure 2 actors is indicative of an entire ethnic group's skin complexion. (Also, Edward James Olmost wasn't in The Wire).

[–] globalist 12 years ago

1. For a docu that's making such a big deal of finding Rodriguez this was a critical omission. And a fact that would have been most interesting, as a final link in the investigation.

3. I said "all-but homeless hermit" though. :) But they could have at least mentioned Australia.

4. Sorry I meant to write "Edward James Olmos, AND the mexican actor from The Shield". Meaning two different people. That makes the count three. :)

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] PsychoDingo 11 years ago

the producer's name was probably printed on the album label and/or cover, since that is rarely not the case. there are several music industry contact info books published annually. it is generally very easy to get phone numbers of people who are active in the business

we don't know how far the investigation into Avant went. it may have continued, but that's not the focus of the doc, so the inclusion was limited intentionally

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[–] globalist 11 years ago

"the producer's name was probably printed on the album label and/or cover, since that is rarely not the case. there are several music industry contact info books published annually. it is generally very easy to get phone numbers of people who are active in the business "

If all it took was to look at the Rodrigues album cover, see a producer name and ring him up then how is the whole Dearborn thing relevant to the investigation?

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[–] Joel Cairo 11 years ago

Exactly. Not relevant at all. Just the film making a big deal about the hard investigation it never was to find out more about Rodriguez. It's supposed to look like something out of a detective story to engage the viewer.