Daft Punk Unchained | Hervé Martin-Delpierre | December 10th, 2015

With a career spanning decades and an image of mythical proportions, Daft Punk will forever be a marker on popular culture. The notoriously secretive duo have bridged genres and mediums, touching every form of art they can. While Daft Punk Unchained chronicles that journey, it may not quite satiate those already familiar with it.

Back in the late 1980’s, Daft Punk were just two regular high school kids with a mutual interest in music. Becoming fast friends, they eventually formed a rock group called Darlin’ (named after the Beach Boys song of the same name) with Laurent Brancowitz. After a short stint including a demo and a couple gigs, the band dissolved, sending Laurent into his future with indie staples Phoenix, and Thomas and Guy-Man to a rave. Daft Punk released their first single, ‘The New Wave’, in 1994, and the rest is history.

Unchained is mainly narrated by people who have worked with, or been inspired by Daft Punk. I think it speaks to the collaborative atmosphere of the house/electronic music revolution of which we’re still riding on. There is a long list of personalities, including Giorgio Moroder, Paul Williams, Nile Rogers, Kanye West, Pedro ‘Busy P’ Winter, and Michel Gondry, who were interviewed for the film. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s an elaboration of the short documentary pieces that were produced to promote Random Access Memories in 2013. The main draw is really the “unseen” footage of early interviews, but more importantly high quality source material from Daft Punk’s legendary performance at Coachella 2006. Previously, we were limited to shoddy cellphone videos uploaded to a very young YouTube. Each phase of the group is touched upon independently and chronologically.

However, the great mystery is by in large sustained. There are no new interviews with the duo, no truly unseen content, and the finer points of their career, such as the development of their albums, is not included. I mean, it couldn’t be, because Daft Punk wasn’t directly involved with this film. You could honestly read their Wikipedia page and get most of the same info. But it really is such a unique situation, as part of the appeal to the group IS the mystery. Do we actually want to know what Thomas eats for breakfast? How Guy-Man likes to drive his kids around? Well, probably. I just think there’s far too much content to realistically cover in a single film’s running time. Recent music documentaries like LCD Soundsystem’s Shut Up and Play the Hits were successful because they were shot in the moment, with a clearly defined subject. I don’t think anyone is really sure if Daft Punk was recording video and taking pictures during their artistic adventures. Pharrell Williams joked that they aren’t of this world, and maybe he’s right. It’s like sighting a UFO. Probably pretty cool in person, but not as much hearing about it secondhand. Funny, as Daft Punk have cited Close Encounters of the Third Kind as an inspiration.

While this documentary may not be the droids we were looking for, I still think there is enough interesting content to make it worth a watch–especially if you aren’t a Daft junkie. Daft Punk Unchained is only the tip of the iceberg, teasing at what still lies below the surface.

Rating: 7.0/10

Daft Punk Unchained is available to watch (at present) exclusively through Showtime in the U.S., so subscribers can check the Showtime app or their cable provider’s On Demand listings.

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