Summary
The Central Scotland Documentary Festival's closing film follows former Black Lace frontman Dene Michael as he navigates life after earning fame by singing "the worst record of all time".
Still Pushing Pineapples, directed by Kim Hopkins and starring Dene Michael as himself, follows the singer of “I Am The Music Man”, “Superman” and “Agadoo” through his post-pineapple life as he attempts to distance himself from his former music duo.
Dene is the former frontman of Black Lace, performers of what critics dubbed “the worst record of all time”. Despite this unshakeable label, Dene hopes to go even bigger with his music career and dreams of “the big album”. He continues performing “Agadoo” despite its criticisms.
However, as the health of his number one fan, his mother, starts to deteriorate, he, along with his new partner, decides to check something special off his mum’s bucket list: a final trip to Benidorm. The only issue is that at 89, Dene’s mother is not allowed to fly, so a pineapple-dotted caravan will have to do.
The documentary lacks structure, often jumping between aspects of Dene’s life with no real time frame, with only location changes being noted. However, this adds a sense of real-life clunkiness, jolting the audience out of the technicolour nostalgia that is 80s party pop.
Use of old Top of the Pops footage and Dene’s own home videos leans into the documentary’s nostalgic aspect even more, showing the audience front and centre how Dene continues to, self-admittedly, live in the past.
Not to sound massively cliché, but Still Pushing Pineapples does manage to show the audience the man behind the pineapple. Despite opening the film dressed as a giant tropical fruit, Dene is portrayed as a son, a friend, and a partner, and how these aspects of his life are impacted by constantly being Mr Agadoo. It drags the audience into a sense of guilt for ever giving him flak.
Despite the guilty cringe this provokes in an audience, it has nothing on the cringe that occurs when we see once-empty dancefloors suddenly filled with pub-goers once Dene starts asking them, “What do you play?” and telling them to shake the tree. If nothing else, Pineapples shows us that the British public got exactly what it deserved when it was given “Agadoo”. Because these songs would never have made it to the radio if the UK weren’t secretly as cringey as it’d like to admit.
Featured Image Credit: Sheffield Documentary Festival
4th year Politics and Journalism student.
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