Anvil! The story of Anvil (2008)

Description

At 14, Toronto school friends Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, went on to become the "demigods of Canadian metal," releasing one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982's Metal on Metal. The album influenced a musical generation, including Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, that went on to sell millions of records. But Anvil's career took a different path - straight to obscurity.

Director Sacha Gervasi has concocted a wonderful and often hilarious account of Anvil's last-ditch quest for elusive fame and fortune. His ingenious filmmaking may first lead you to think this a mockumentary, but it isn't. Gervasi joined the legendary heavy-metal band as a roadie for a tour of Canadian hockey arenas, so he has intimate insight into the members' eccentricities. It's fascinating to see the reality of their day-to-day lives as they struggle to make ends meet, take a misguided European tour, and engage in antics on the road - which is not always lined with fans. Gervasi even finds a softer center to this raucous film, introducing us to band members' ever-supportive, but long-suffering, families. At its core, Anvil! The True Story of Anvil is a timeless tale of survival and the unadulterated passion it takes to follow your dream, year after year. Anvil rocks - it has no other choice.

Tags

Rock, Canada

Editorial review

8.0 Documentary-Review.com | D. Brecker

A real-life version of This is Spinal Tap, The Story of Anvil is one of the best rock/metal documentaries out there. Following these Canadian "demi-gods of heavy metal" through all manner of economic struggles, mistakes, trials and tribulations, director Gervasi paints an inspirational and endearing portrait of ageing rockers never giving up on their quest for fame.

Collected reviews and ratings

10 efilmcritic.com | Colin Souter

Anvil! Deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as other great, recent rocks docs, such as DiG!, Shut Up and Sing and I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. The movie and its subjects make their case about record labels, the industry and artist recognition without being whiney or preachy. They know the wisdom that if your art has any value at all, it will be discovered and/or revered by someone.
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10 FutureMovies | Coco Forsythe

Whether you like metal all not, it’s impossible not to relate to Lips’ and Robb’s heartbreaking determination to give it one last shot. And then another. And just one more. In this world of instant celebrity and X-Factor manufactured stars, Anvil presents a refreshing, touching and real look at the music industry and the trials and tribulations of keeping the faith.
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9.0 Exclaim! | Katarina Gligorijevic

The film is an ode to the Canadian metal demi-gods and obviously the work of a huge fan who wanted to paint a sympathetic portrait of the band without sugar-coating the somewhat depressing reality of their constant near misses with success, fame and fortune.
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9.0 Variety | Dennis Harvey

A real-life Spinal Tap facing some harsh realities, Canadian metal band Anvil -- whose principals have been playing together for more than 35 years -- proves surprisingly inspirational and endearing in Sacha Gervasi's docu as the members struggle to keep rockin' into their 50s, with commercial success forever just out of reach.
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9.0 SPIN | Tom Roston

Ever since Anvil! The Story of Anvil premiered at Sundance last January, it has been teasing audiences with the question, How could these guys be real? Even John Cooper, head programmer at the festival, thought the film was a hoax when he first saw it. He scoured the Internet until he found a long list of Anvil albums and determined that truth can indeed be funnier than fiction.
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9.0 The Independent | Rob Sharp

"I can sum it up for you in three words," says lead singer Reiner, to camera. "We have shit management." Kudlow, the band's drummer, adds: "The music lasts forever. Maybe the debt does too."
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8.0 Film Threat | Zack Haddad

I am going to go out on a limb and assume a lot of you have seen “This is Spinal Tap.” If that is the case then you are going to be thrilled when I tell you that there is a new movie out there that is “Spinal Tap” for real, and it is every bit enjoyable as that famed mockumentary. So lift up those devil horns and worship the great documentary “Anvil: The Story of Anvil.”
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8.0 Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

... likely the only heartwarming film ever made about a heavy metal band. It follows the affable members of Canada's longest-lived metal group as they depart on the most comically haphazard rock tour since the fictional days of "This Is Spinal Tap!"
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7.0 Eye For Film | Anton Bitel

What makes it all work is the director's genuine affection for his subjects, so that the film's inherent humour never quite lapses into a supercilious kind of ridicule. Put simply, Gervasi is with Anvil all the way, and the result is that you will be, too.
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7.0 Slant Magazine | Nick Schager

Gervasi eschews at-their-expense jokes to concentrate on the simultaneously pitiable, poignant and stirring perseverance of Lips and Reiner, lifelong friends who keep trudging forward, despite economic hurdles, the ravages of time, and repeated blows to their self-esteem and brotherly relationship, in the hope that their star might yet ascend.
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