What if This is Spinal Tap were real?

Two childhood friends form a band and proceed to rose through the ranks of 80's heavy metal acts. They sported stupid haircuts, played loud, grating music and cut some records. Then their careers came to a screeching halt. Today we find the friends, guitarist Steve 'Lips' Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner (not Rob Reiner, he directed This is Spinal Tap), now middle-aged, working menial jobs and playing gigs in dives. Their best days clearly behind them.

Director Sacha Gervasi could have mocked his subjects quite easily. Reiner and Kudlow certainly give him enough ammo to make them worthy targets. Men of their age, at their current level of success, still clinging to their youthful dreams seem like pathetic middle-aged guys hanging around college bars thinking they're going to score. Gervasi doesn't shy away from how sad these guys are, lost in their delusion. He forms a documentary that is a mix of This is Spinal Tap and The Wrestler; except without all of the humor and without a mopey lummox in spandex.

Gervasi smartly focuses on the lifelong friendship between the men. Each of them feeds the other emotionally and artistically*. It is in their interactions, their shared psychology that Gervasi finds rich ground for his film. The duo aren't great men, but they are interesting ones in a slow-mo car wreck kind of way.


* - term used loosely.

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Labels: documentary, film, movie review, music