Review of Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008) by Daniel P — 29 Dec 2011

You don't need to love metal, you just need to love honest artists. In the early going, you can't help but compare it to This Is Spinal Tap, and start to wonder how much of it is put on, but you quickly realize that this story is too common and too pure to be faked. There are hundreds of bands out there who almost made it... and next to none of them can say they've been together 30 years, like Anvil has.

When Anvil was unable to follow up their shot - the final slot on a tour of Japan that also featured Scorpions and Bon Jovi - they wound up doing everything themselves. The Story of Anvil is a touching documentary that can bring you to tears in some places - Lips and Robb never quite lose that fanboy joy, no matter how badly things go, or which members of which big bands don't remember them - and it can make you laug out loud in others. Typical line: "The tour went wrong. Everything went disastrously wrong. But at least there was a tour for things to go wrong on. I don't regret a minute of it." Talk about an optimist! At its core, this film is about two regular guys who just love what they do, and who keep doing it, for themselves and for each other. As every struggling artist knows, you have to imagine that Sisyphus is happy. Excellent documentary, a wonderful surprise.