Tina Kakadelis
Who among us hasn’t seen one French New Wave film at an impressionable time in their lives and then changed their entire personality? If you have, Fergus Campbell’s SXSW-premiering Sparks is for you. Like the filmmaking era it focuses on, Sparks is shaggy, with a homemade feel to it that is as endearing as it is ambling and loose. With a bright new voice behind the camera and plenty in front as well, Sparks could very well lead to a fire.
”You don’t deserve to be someplace better than here.” Cleo’s mom tells her from the driver’s seat of the car. Cleo (Elsie Fisher of Eighth Grade and Tow) and her mother, who were never seen à la adults in kid cartoons, have just moved to Sparks, Nevada. It’s an empty town, barren without much for a teenager to do, as evidenced by the fact that the main hangout spot in town is a parking lot. It’s hard to understand the allure of a parking lot unless you are also a rural or suburban teen. Cleo is introduced to the Crop, a group of teens that consists of Antoine (Charlie B. Foster), Max (Denny McAuliffe), Casazza (Julia D’Angelo), Odette (Madison Hu), Kane (Thomas Deen Baker), and Trip (Simon Downes Toney). They cause general mischief around town, but their main interest lies in the Reservoir.
The rumor in town, passed from one class of kids to the next, is that the Reservoir has time-traveling abilities. Tall tales of people who have waded into the water and appeared in a different place and time. Cleo sees this as the answer to her problems after a mysterious cigarette dispenser machine appears out of nowhere and, in addition to a pack, gives her a book on French New Wave director Jean Luc Godard. Despite not understanding the language, she begins to read and decides Paris in 1960 is the place she needs to be. Her mother may think she doesn’t deserve better than this town, but Cleo does and that’s what matters. Sparks is a film about belief. Does the Reservoir have magical powers? To Sparks, that’s less interesting than what this character need for the Reservoir to be able to time travel?
Like the French New Wave films it was inspired by, Sparks is more vibey and atmospheric than anything. Members of the Crop judge New Wave films by saying that all they do in these movies is drive and talk or walk and talk. Ironically, on purpose, this is exactly what the teens of the Crop do as well. They drive from place to place, always ending up at the same parking lot, desperate for life to begin. What they struggle to realize is that this is life, and it has long since begun. As a teenager, though, you’re always waiting for the next best thing, and Sparks captures this restlessness in such a unique way because all of the members of the Crop see reality in their own way. Antoine overthinks and believes he has to do everything himself, Max is generous to his own detriment, and Cleo is a dreamer. They each see the world as they need to see it to get through their life in Sparks, NV.
Sparks does fall into some of the traps of a first feature, but that shouldn’t deter anyone from checking it out. While some of the plot points may be familiar, Fergus Campbell’s voice is all his own. The hand-drawn animations are like doodles in the margins of teenage ennui. Campbell captures the American West’s look of surrealist Americana. Where things feel worn in, history baked into their very existence, and a sense of wonder that seems to thrive in places with wide open skies. Sparks is very much a Western for a new generation. It’s always been a genre about exploration, but in these contemporary versions of the film type, it’s an internal reflection. Last year’s National Anthem would be a wonderful companion piece to Sparks. Both telling queer stories of connection and growing up with the visual language of films that never included people like them. Sparks is a lightning bolt of technicolor to the French New Wave by way of the dreamy, magical, sprawling American West.
