With ‘Brothers Of The Head’, Lost In La Mancha film makers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe take a side-step from documentary to mockumentary. And with this small step they inject a maturity into the genre I struggle to recall having seen before.
Brothers of the Head is the story of conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe; a freak show who are plucked from obscurity, and groomed by rock royalty into a pre-punk phenomenon. Joined at the stomach, Tom is able to use both his arms and is trained as the lead guitarist; Barry, forced by anatomy to live his life peering over his brother’s left shoulder, is the lead vocalist.
Don’t get me wrong, this film does have many a laugh out loud moment, the bands first meeting with groupie turned journalist ‘Laura Ashworth’ being particularly memorable (see trailer below). However, the film is encapsulated in a much darker theme – Our impulse to celebrate the weird and extraordinary, and our compulsion to own it, de-mystify it, and ultimately destroy it when the appeal begins to wear off. Kinda like the modern day music press and their ‘build a band up to knock ‘em down’ attitude. It’s not exclusive to siamese twin rockers.
The lyrics to Dinosaur Jr’s ‘Freak Scene’ remind me of the twins predicament.
“Seen enough to eye you But Ive seen to much to try you Its always weirdness while you Dig it much too much to fry you The weirdness flows between us Anyone can tell to see us Freak scene just cant believe us Why cant it just be cool and free us?”
The film-makers capture the music and spirit of the times perfectly. On the odd occasion when ‘Bang Bang’ were on stage it felt like I was actually there. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them touring for real if Brothers In The Head bags the cult status I believe it deserves.
The Treadaway brothers as Tom and Barry are a revelation, it’s hard to imagine a tougher ask for two actors so young to their trade, but they pull it off with ease. Some of the supporting characters lack depth, main culprits being the rest of the band, but there’s a cool cameo from Ken Russell that’s worth it’s weight in gold. B.O.T.H. does have its quota of cliche but tell me what rock topical film doesn’t?
Brothers Of The Head, I’m sure Is a cult smash in the making. I expected nothing going in and came out with an experience that would compete for a place on my all-time favourite films list. If I happened to have one.
See it! Buy it! don’t deny it!