The Conical Glass: This movie goes to 11

Friday, October 24, 2008

This movie goes to 11

My experience going to see "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" was almost like a microcosm of the band's own saga. It's playing as part of SF DOCFEST, a local documentary film festival which, oddly enough, I've never been to before, despite the fact that I love docs. My experience with film festivals (SF International, Mill Valley, Silent Film, etc.) tends to be long lines and sell-outs, so I bought tickets in advance and got to the Roxie Theater 45 minutes early. No one else was around, except for a guy selling the Street Sheet, so we walked around the Mission for a while. About 25 minutes before the screening was due to begin, we went in. There were maybe a dozen people inside, a number that swelled to maybe 30 or 40 by the time the film started unspooling.

"Anvil" is the story of a heavy metal band that often seems uncomfortably close to a real-life Spinal Tap. The Canadian quartet's key members are frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner, who have been best friends since the age of 14 -- over 35 years ago. Despite a taste of success in the '80s, when their hard rocking sound and risque onstage antics influenced the likes of Anthrax and Metallica, the 50-year-old men now work menial jobs to stay afloat and play the odd local club gig in their spare time. They haven't stopped making albums -- their catalog now spans 13 albums, including such titles as Metal on Metal, Hard 'n Heavy and Absolutely No Alternative -- but as Lips complains, the fact that they're so small-time has meant tiny recording budgets and releases that don't capture the full majesty of the band's sound. He is determined to make sure the band's 13th album, cleverly titled This Is Thirteen, is their best yet. Yes, he's 50 and still waiting for his big break.

The band receives an email from a promoter who wants to book them on a European tour. Filmmaker Sacha Gervasi signed on as a roadie and joins Anvil as they roam the continent, with the occasional high (a medium-sized festival in Sweden) and many, many lows (sparring with club owners who don't want to pay them; a booking in a 10,000-capacity hall that brings in fewer than 200 paying customers; missed trains). By the end, I was half-expecting to see a marquee reading "PUPPET SHOW/and Anvil." One of the more blatant Tap references -- the boys visit Stonehenge -- elicited giggles from the Roxie audience.

The film does have a happy ending of sorts, though perhaps for Anvil, the best news is the increased exposure they've gotten as a result of the documentary, which was a hit at Sundance and has won audience awards at other festivals. In a recent interview with Spin, Lips talked about his feelings when Gervasi approached him about doing the film: ""I felt, 'Ah, this is the moment I've been waiting for.' I've been doing this band for 30 years for this movie." Even if you're not into metal, after getting to know Lips and Robb and their families, you'll be rooting for them, too. This is a very entertaining and endearing film that, like Anvil itself, deserves bigger audiences.

posted by 125records @ 11:20 AM

1 Comments:

At 1:01 PM, 2fs said…

Wait - the drummer's name is Rob*b* Reiner? That's freaktastic.