Pearly rocks 'n' Sweet rolls

There wasn't a chance in hell this review would be negative. I've been sweating rock-star-in-residence Pearly Sweets since my freshman year, elbowing my way to the front row at concerts, salivating like a Pavlovian groupie at the sound of those first keyboard chords. Spellbound by Pearly's bombastic stage presence, musical masterpieces, and prolific onstage perspiration, I was willing to euphe-mize a little (read: lie) if his movie happened to suck. Lucky for my journalistic principles, such as they are, Pearly Sweets: A Decade in Music deserves every glowing word on this page.

The movie is at once a parody and a tribute—directed both at Pearly Sweets and at Behind the Music-esque rockumentaries. Saturated with good-natured irony, it alternates between interview excerpts and footage of Pearly in various contexts (Pearly playing piano! Pearly applying chapstick! Pearly performing an erotic dance with his vacuum cleaner!). These two components of the film seamlessly integrate into a hilarious, cinematically skillful narrative.

An anonymous interviewer asks Pearly's acquaintances, band members, and relatives questions about "him," the enigmatic, godlike figure who never condescends to an interview. One reason for this may be that, as the cognoscenti will know by his distinctive drawl, the interviews are conducted by none other than Mr. Sweets himself. The interviews boast some priceless exchanges. "What do the words `Pearly Sweets' mean to you?" the voice asks Noah Mamber, SM '00, who replies in all solemnity: "Idolatry ...Adulation...Beauty." The acme of this absurdity is Charles Boardman's, BR '00, remark, "Philosophically, I would ally him with the beginning of philosophy. Pearly Sweets really gets to the root of the question, `What is truth?'"

At the other extreme, we have statements likening his physiognomy to that of a Jewish horse, and the characterization of his sexuality as "amusing." The movie sustains an ingenious interplay between self-aggrandizement and self-deprecation. Pearly's glorification is so over the top that it is self-mocking. This ridicule, in conjunction with explicit insults, feels like a parody. At the same time, it's a movie dedicated entirely to him, and what could be more egocentric than that?

Film

Pearly Sweets: A Decade in Music Film and rock 'n' roll circus Fri., Apr. 28, 10 p.m. Sat., Apr. 29, 7 and 10 p.m. Davies Auditorium $2

Other gems include "archival footage" circa 1985 of a nerdy, bespectacled seven-year-old singing "We are the World" in an school auditorium, pushing away from the mic a classmate who tries to intrude on his glory. There's also a genuinely poignant storyline about the departure of drummer Carl Ehrhardt, TC '00, who left the band during filmmaking. This serious parenthesis briefly interrupts the humor, and presented without irony or melodrama, it's quietly affecting.

Mark my words: Pearly is on the road to superstardom. And after another decade of music, when the VH1 documentary comes out, it will pale in comparison to this one.

Back to A&E...