Arden ♥s this movie!
At the center of this heavily biased yet satisfying documentary is the undeniable friendship and unwavering hope of two aging rockers, Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner, the guitarist and drummer (respectively) of an all-but-forgotten metal band, Anvil. After 15 minutes of fame 30 years ago, the band was quickly eclipsed by the likes of Metallica and Megadeth. But if they should've given up the dream and quit rocking, no one told Kudlow and Reiner. Working day jobs like demolition and delivering lunches to grade school cafeterias, both men keep their music alive and well on weekends and vacations.
While the idea of slaving 9 to 5 is a necessary rite of passage for any artist in their 20s, none of us expect to be doing it at middle age. That would be.... well, pathetic. But Lips and Rob are anything but. Lips has a borderline sick optimistic streak and a passion that cannot be quenched even by a disastrous European "tour" which includes club owners refusing to pay and perform to empty bars. "I'm grateful!" exclaims Lips as he prepares to don his hairnet at the start of another school year. This was stupefying to me. His perseverance in the face of constant rejection and three decades of "failure" you can taste... I'm not even 30 and I don't have it. As Slash (in a brief talking head moment) points out that there are very few bands that have been together for 30 years: "The Who... Rolling Stones... ...um... and Anvil."
I won't ruin the climax of the film. But it's a moment that the filmmaker very shrewdly positioned in the doc's three act structure to solicit our maximum fulfillment. Something most narrative films don't give a shit about. You know... It's funny. While these are obviously real people and their story is very true, Anvil is not really a documentary. The filmmaker, Gervasi (also the screenwriter of Spielberg's The Terminal, WTF?) was an Anvil fan from the beginning and all the footage is positioned to tell a narrative story of redemption with a touch of... yikes, Spielbergian feel-goodness. But that said, it's a wholly satisfying narrative story of redemption. And if no one is writing Rocky anymore, then I guess you have to go out and find him. I, for one, am not complaining.
Synonyms: DIG!, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, This Is Spinal Tap, King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Antonyms: Shine A Light, Running Down a Dream, No Direction Home
BOTTOM LINE: If you can find it playing near you, GO! I bet you buy a T-shirt when you get home.
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