Anvil! The Story of Anvil (3.5 Stars)

Maybe they were just too funny, deliberately.

A hosehead influence on Anthrax, Megadeth and other monsters of metal, the Canadian band Anvil, led by guitarist, vocalist and tongue-flicker Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner, lacked the necessary humorlessness to conquer the world. They were big for a while. And then they weren't.

The new documentary "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" succeeds every which way, as '80s metal nostalgia, as a twisted sort of reality-show attempt at a comeback, as an unexpectedly touching portrait of a friendship.

Director Sacha Gervasi hung out with the band in London in the early '80s when Anvil toured in support of its album "Metal on Metal." Gervasi joined them as a roadie. Then, a generation later, he hunted them down to find out what happened in the interim. "Anvil!" answers the question, and even if it's not a question that was on your mind, the 80-minute movie catches you up in highly entertaining fashion.

It hooks you straight off, with its initial '80s concert footage featuring Lips brandishing a sex toy during his solos and driving a Japanese throng of metalheads insane.

Then, a harsh juxtaposition: It's the present day, and we're driving around suburban Toronto with Kudlow as he works his day job, delivering school lunches. He's just another cold-weather resident in a ski cap. But of course he's more: This 50ish guy wants to rock, as does his best-friend-since-14 Reiner, and "Anvil!" chronicles the reconstituted band's wobbly 2007 comeback tour (things do not go well in Transylvania) and their nerve-racking studio sessions as they put out their 13th album, "This is Thirteen."

It's impossible to watch "Anvil!" without thinking about "This Is Spinal Tap," and Gervasi courts the satiric comparison in the way he shoots an album-cover montage, or a trip to Stonehenge, or the classic stadium hallway crawl, the camera following the band members as they make their way to the stage.

But the film is too in love with these guys to settle for cheap shots and mockery.

They're not ridiculous, from any angle: They cherish their dreams of rock grandeur, which may be delusional, but delusional is not dismissible.

Some of the later scenes in the recording studio in England, where things get increasingly fraught, carry the whiff of reality-TV bunk.

With a camera so close, you always have to wonder about the veracity of how these blowups play out. Still, I can't imagine "Anvil!" not appealing to anyone interested in any aspect of showbiz, and the drug of fame, and the lives people lead in pursuit of the next fix.

Kudlow and Reiner (no relation to Rob Reiner, who made "Spinal Tap," except in karmic terms) got the cinematic fan letter they deserve.

 

Anvil! The Story of Anvil No MPAA rating (some language, extreme heavy metal).

Running time: 1:20

Featuring: Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner

Written and directed by Sacha Gervasi

Produced by Rebecca Yeldham.

An Abramorama Films release.

 

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