Anvil! The Story of Anvil

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Globe Cinema

I can't believe how good Anvil! The Story of Anvil is. Seriously, this film filled me with disbelief. “Is this for real?” I wondered. “Or am I going to be like one of those gullible filmgoers who thought This is Spinal Tap was a real documentary back in 1984?” Huge chunks of the story seem too funny to be true. First time documentarian Sacha Gervasi is there with his camera to capture every single moment of importance at precisely the right time, as if by magic. The drummer's name is Robb Reiner, putting him one lowercase “b” away from being the director of Spinal Tap. The band's amp even goes up to 11, for Pete's sake! This has got to be a put-on, right? A brilliant, hilarious, heartwarming fake?

Nope. It's all real. (I think.)

Canadian heavy metal band Anvil hit their (decidedly modest) stride in the 1980s with their breakout album Metal on Metal, and a massive 1984 tour of Japan with headbanging icons Scorpions, Whitesnake and Bon Jovi. Flash forward 25 years, and Anvil are still together, performing in tiny dive bars while frontman Steve “Lips” Kudlow delivers school lunches by day in order to pay the bills. The band has been toiling in obscurity for decades, never getting that big break, but never giving up. Now in their 50s, Kudlow and lifelong buddy Robb Reiner realize that if success doesn't come soon, it won't come at all.

A well-meaning but inexperienced manager books them on a tour of Europe that turns into a fiasco. The band fails to book rail passage in time to make an important gig. One venue doesn't bother paying the band at all. A paltry 178 people show up to a 10,000-seat venue. The new album, This is Thirteen, costs a fortune to produce, but is ignored by the major labels, and has to be self-distributed. Every setback is painful and stressful, but illustrates that the band is in this for love, not money.

And in some ways, it’s paid off. Interview footage of Lemmy (Motorhead), Slash (Guns N' Roses) and Lars Ulrich (Metallica) shows the legendary rockers speaking of Anvil with admiration, citing the band as a significant influence on their work, and on heavy metal in general.

You'll laugh at these characters, but you'll cry with them, too. Don't worry if you've never heard of Anvil. Don't worry if you don't like heavy metal. Just see this film. It rocks.