This might be the most enjoyable time I’ve had watching a movie this year, aside from midnight screenings of The Room, and much of it can be attributed to the amazing story and the terrific storytelling found in Searching for Sugar Man. I knew very little about this movie before seeing it, and it’s a story that’s virtually unknown to most of the country, so I’ll try to preserve that lack of context for the purposes of this list.
One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings, because when I watched it I had no idea whether Ali won the epic match that serves as the film’s climax, so the finish was exhilarating. Searching for Sugar Man made for a similar experience; the story takes all sorts of unexpected twists and turns which makes for an ending both surprising and satisfying.
It’s a credit to director Malik Bendjelloul’s handling of the story of this musician identified only as Rodriguez that gives the doc an air of fascinating mystery and captures the joy of the pursuit of his true identity, undertaken by journalists and music enthusiasts represented in the film. It begins slowly but gains momentum before long. Every new development feels like it could be the big reveal, which makes for a kind of snowball effect of joyous revelation. It’s a tremendous movie worth checking out, especially since it’s a favorite to win the Best Documentary Oscar next month.
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