![]() There's getting the record actually distributed. Then when they get back it sets in that they don't really play anywhere and are deteriorating away - until the initiative comes to Legs that an album must be made, and their only real big-time major produced record, produced by the guy behind many of Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy's records, tries to get them to do it. It's so real and raw in presentation that you are on the edge of your seat wondering "can this be the end?" The film follows Anvil, half with original members and half with new ones, as they first go on tour in Europe (while on vacation from their *actual* pay jobs, which include for Lips driving grocery supplies- again, a supermarket job ala Randy The Ram Robinson and breaking concrete for Reiner), and after the initial high of going on tour in Metal havens like Sweden find that their manager is misguided and without proper English and they barely get paid for gigs they actually play. This is about real stakes, of friendship and what it means to stick together in something that may be a failure for the most part. We see real hardcore screaming matches between himself and his friend Robb Reiner (not that Reiner, oddly enough director of 'Tap'), and it's not like what one saw in 2004's Some Kind of Monster where we saw a group of *millionaires* whining in argument over recording an album and going into group therapy. They've got big balls, maybe the biggest of them all, but can they get that record break even in their Canadian homeland? At the same time that the lead singer Lips carries that determination and optimism, now in his 50's and playing in Anvil for over 30 years, there are some moments where he just breaks down. Anvil is the hardest working metal band that hasn't caught a break in years, but they play and play their heart and soul out for all it's worth even when nobody (or five people in a 10,000 seat arena) shows up. There's such a connection to these people that what was uproarious in Spinal Tap carries a whole other dimension. This is a film that has a bittersweet tattoo on its hands, mostly bitter, a bit of sweet, and a whole lot of optimism with the chaser of stress and the very upfront possibility of failure. But it's also got the heart and some similarity to The Wrestler. Indeed at one point when the camera follows the band walking down a hallway about to go on stage I put a hand over my eyes thinking they were about to get lost. ![]() ![]() Acclaimed for its heartfelt story and candid, funny look at the band members' lives, Anvil! The Story of Anvil further reignited interest in Anvil, who have subsequently gone on several successful tours and recorded new material their latest album, Impact is Imminent, came out earlier this year.Anvil: The Story of Anvil has got those absurd moments ala Spinal Tap, to be sure. However, after borrowing money to record a new album produced by Chris Tsangarides, the producer of their most acclaimed album, Metal on Metal, the band finds new success. The tour turns out to be a disaster, causing a great strain on the band's finances and personal lives. The movie finds Kudlow and Reiner in 2006, living quiet lives in suburban Toronto, before going on a tour of Europe that promises to revive their musical careers. Founded by Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner in 1978, Anvil enjoyed a brief flush of success in the '80s, and were a formative influence on a number of other metal bands, including Metallica and Guns N' Roses, but largely faded into obscurity over the subsequent decades. Anvil! The Story of Anvil chronicles the ups and downs of Canadian metal band Anvil. ![]()
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