★★
The spotlight on Parchís, a record company-created Spanish boy/girl band that had unprecedented success with Top 10 songs and hit films in the 80's
Classification: 12
Unless you have a personal interest in the subject matter, Parchís: The Documentary is unable to engage its audience as it moves through its standard narrative constructed from talking head interviews and old footage. While it can shine a light onto a corner of pop culture that could be relatively unknown the story of Parchís for the most part is not particularly compelling as director Daniel Arasanz constructs this documentary in the blandest way possible. There are moments of intrigue but they seem to stem from clichéd expectations from music groups; interpersonal relationships, falling outs, greed and manipulation and the eventual break up making Parchís's story no different to the story of any other music group.
Their explosion upon Hispanic culture seemed unprecedented with films, singles and merchandise consuming the marketplace and their own success inspired many other bands of similar design. Parchís: The Documentary documents through interviews with the child performers know as adults how the fame and subsequent consequences of that fame affected them, despite having comprehensive access to the former band members, Arasanz just goes through the motions on the history of the group like a wikipedia page. The language barrier isn't the issue but the barrier of how Parchís is presented to the audience, if this your first introduction to the group the film doesn't do enough to create an attachment to garner any interest beyond a mild curiosity that will dissipate very quickly into the documentary's runtime.
The variety of viewpoints on Parchís seem to be well covered from the band members, tutors, parents, managers, crew members and people at various levels of production either performance or cinematic. Arasanz makes sure his narrative is supported by the interviews and shows how the band experience was both a negative and positive influence for the children but also for those working around them. However despite the accuracy and honesty that seems to be coming from these interviews there is no real emotional connection to the material, it almost feels clinical in the continuing revelations of what brought Parchís downfall. Some of the interviews can feel like depositions at time and not in a fun cinematic way as it just moves from one piece of information to the next, accompanied by the appropriate piece of footage.
It's not terrible but its very uninteresting even when the film tries to weave in the emotional threads late in the ending the damage has been done. Parchís: The Documentary barely does anything to entice newcomers to this story and then is unable to hold their attention as it begins to go through the history. Daniel Arasanz's direction really leaves the documentary yearning for any sense of structure besides chronological which is a shame because the few moments the story of the band becomes interesting is quickly floundered by the next creative decision. If you have your own nostalgia for Parchís then perhaps the faults won't be as apparent due to your own personal connection to the material but without it, the entire experience of this film can be both boring and alienating.
Director: Daniel Arasanz
Cast: Francisco Díaz, Tino Fernández, David Muñoz, Gemma Termes Prat, Yolanda Ventura
Release Date: July 10th 2019
Available exclusively on Netflix
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images from the Internet Movie Database, Synopsis from Netflix
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