SUPER TROUPERS: THIRTY YEARS OF ABBA (2004) *** Ok, so it's more like ten years of Abba and twenty years without Abba, but never mind that-for the faithful it's like they're still always there. Whether you like the band or not it's a helluva story (and not just because they sold 360 million records) and the director understands that it sells itself and doesn't over-direct (largely contenting himself with lifting footage from Lasse Hallstrom's ABBA: The Movie). Two couples playing music on an island, thinking it would last forever, the scenes from the Sydney airport... The documentary doesn't get into Benny Andersson's political intentions for work like "The Visitor," if anything Benny and Björn Ulvaeus come off as being hopelessly normal to the point of near dreariness. But they didn't get lucky. The critic who compares their songs to those of John Lennon and Paul McCartney probably wouldn't do if he knew what he was talking about, but there's no question that Abbasongs got stuck in the brains of an entire generation, mostly with pleasant results. ABBA also knew what they were doing in the studio. They basically say that they were just doing what Phil Specter talked about in his book, but that doesn't explain all of the great arrangements. Then there are the Abbagirls. Agnetha Fältskog comes off as the most sympathetic figure of all, a personage so endearing that you feel for her even as she'd doing absurdly choreographed dances in bad suits. Anni-Frid Lyngstad manages the same thing on a slightly lower plane, but with the additional handicap of increasingly bizarre hair arrangements. It was all supposed to be the documentary of a reunion, but Agnetha decided not to show up. For most acts that would have been enough to kill the project, but for Abba it only makes it all the more mysterious and appealing. Because they got to that level and never did anything to diminish the allure that got them there.
back to Brilliant Observations on 1776 Films home
go back home, or send me email
no more reviews! I want to buy your novel!