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April 8, 2009Movie Review: Anvil! The Story of AnvilPosted by CoolerKing in Movie Reviews

It's early in 2009 but you probably won't see a more enjoyable, uplifting, simply fantastic documentary this year than Sacha Gervasi's great Anvil! The Story of Anvil, a sublime film that could be pitched by a studio head as "American Movie meets Metallica: Some Kind of Monster". If you know how great those two docs are, buy your tickets to the rock show that is Anvil! before it sells out. Humorous documentaries like Spellbound, Young@Heart, and The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters have developed cult followings over the last few years after making a splash on the arthouse circuit. I expect Anvil! to be one of the most widely beloved docs of the next several years. It's a blast in every way.

In 1978, Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner formed the soon-to-be legendary metal group Anvil!. These two genuinely talented young men would quickly find themselves near the top of the heavy metal wave that took the world by storm in the early '80s. Anvil! The Story of Anvil opens with several of Anvil's peers, including Lemmy of Motorhead, Slash of Guns 'n' Roses, and Lars Ulrich of Metallica, speaking nearly in hushed tones about the talent on display whenever Anvil was on-stage. Of course, as any good music fan knows, most of the bands that shared a stage with Anvil went on to superstardom and could still live forever on the royalties from their biggest hits. Not Anvil. Despite pounding away at what they love to do for years (and producing twelve albums), the band still hasn't found their breakthrough. But they're not giving up. They may be all be fifty now, but they still have a dream, even if it's going to kill them.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil opens with a nightmare of a tour in which the band plays small European shows for which they don't even get paid and look like they're barely keeping their sh*t together. Suffering through the worst tour since Spinal Tap almost seems to light a fire under Lips and Robb. They get back in the studio with the '80s producer who got them closest to superstardom for a thirteenth album that they hope will finally allow them to live their high school dreams. But Robb and Lips are getting old, tired, and frustrated. They often fight like an old married couple and know that they're running out of turns at the mic.

More than any movie in a very long time, Anvil! The Story of Anvil brilliantly captures the human drive to fulfill a dream against all odds. These men have been feuding, rocking, and touring for decades. You could say they're just pounding their head against the wall and, during a heartbreaking fight when Lips realizes he's not getting paid for a just-performed gig, you might want to shake your head at why they've wasted so much of their lives. But when do you give up on a dream? And how? And when you see the people who still follow Anvil and you see glimpses of possible fame in their future just around every corner, can you really blame them for wanting to give it "just one more try"?

It would be easy to under-value the quality of Anvil! The Story of Anvil. One could say that director Gervasi found a great story and simply filmed it. One would be wrong. Most directors would have over-played the goofy, Spinal-Tap angle of Anvil and sold the doc as a comedy. While it is very funny, what elevates the documentary about the rock gods that grew old is that it never makes fun of them. Gervasi neither idolizes nor ridicules Lips and Robb. They're just out there, doing their thing, and you can take from it what you will. Everyone who has ever played air guitar much less dreamed of rocking out in front of thousands of screaming fans will find some of themselves in Anvil! The Story of Anvil. It's the documentary of the year so far.

Rating: FOUR BONES

Reviewed by Brian Tallerico (MovieRetriever.com Film Critic)

Release Date: April 10th, 2009
Rating: NR

Director: Sacha GervasiBookmark/Search this post with: Delicious

Posted by CoolerKing in Movie Reviews - April 8, 2009 at 5:04 PM

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