SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2025 REVIEW! The entertainment family that took a beating to the rhythm of the night struggles on in the heartbreaking documentary DeBarge by Matthew Siretta. James DeBarge, former pop star and one-time husband of Janet Jackson, is struggling during the pandemic due to the housing shortage in Los Angeles. He and his musical family are forced to live in their RVs in a huge caravan parked along the side of the street.
The dreary existence of poverty and medical catastrophes is far away from their rise from Motown into stardom during the white-hot 80s. Tommy DeBarge is very ill. Randy DeBarge isn’t doing much better. Frontman El DeBarge isn’t having any of it, as he literally slaps the camera out of Siretta’s hand. El is not down with the documentary James has initiated, as he still owns music rights and is worried about their brand tarnishing.
“…DeBarge, former pop star and one-time husband of Janet Jackson, is struggling during the pandemic…”
“This isn’t us!” screams El from offscreen while wrestling with the camera. But James is determined to proceed with the project, which gets totally raw about how hard this musical family landed from the heights of almost legendary.
The title DeBarge references the hyping of 1985 as “The Year of DeBarge.” Having just become a teen at the time, I can attest that this was correct from my view at ground zero. In ’83, Thriller became the biggest album of all time. Then suddenly, in ’84, Purple Rain became the new biggest album and the biggest movie of all time. So, in ’85, it was completely believable that DeBarge was going to be as big as Michael Jackson and Prince.
They sounded so damn good back then, with Rhythm of the Night spearheading the soundtrack for what was surely the next biggest movie of all time, Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon. It wasn’t. The film bombed, and DeBarge faded faster than a pair of stone-washed jeans. But that potential remained in their songs, harkening back to that brief moment in time when they were to be legends.
"…some of the most genuine sorrow caught onscreen in a film about musicians."
