Movie 172: Anvil! The Story of Anvil

Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008) by Sacha Gervasi
featuring Anvil (aka Lips and Robb Reiner)



In a nutshell: A very entertaining portrait of a few guys who have been rolling with the punches for a very long time but still have their eyes on the prize. It will make you feel guilty for ever giving up on any dream

Quick synopsis: Many of Anvil's peers and proteges went on to massive worldwide stardom while Anvil toiled in obscurity for 2 decades. Anything that can go wrong often does as they pick themselves up for yet another attempt at breaking through.

Content: If you have heard of this movie, you have probably heard the band and their antics compared to fictional bumbling rockers, Spinal Tap. And everything you've heard would be true. The parallels are eerie, from meddling girlfriends to empty arenas and faulty management. The Story of Anvil is a sad but uplifting story about two guys with a dream. It's sad because they still haven't achieved their dream of rock stardom as they enter their 50's, but it is uplifting because they simply don't know how to give up on it, no matter how they cruelly they are treated by the world. We are talking about guys that work demolition, drive food delivery trucks and live paycheck-to-paycheck in order to record their next album.

Although the other band members have rotated throughout the years, Anvil is based around its lead singer/guitarist nicknamed "Lips" and its drummer, Robb Reiner. These guys have a complex relationship that is more intricate than many marriages. One is emotionally explosive while the other who is often the target of the outbursts has pretty much developed a dependency on his leader to help him achieve his dream. They suffer setback after setback mixed in with just enough hope to keep them going when combined with unabashed love for heavy metal.

You will feel for these guys as things don't go their way and you get furious alongside them when they get stiffed in Prague. But then they are juxtaposed against their siblings who seem to be successful, upstanding citizens and the comparison is startling. But the film never judges these guys. At times I question how much the events depicted are being edited to make the rollercoaster that is Anvil seem more extreme, but for the most part Anvil is an extremely candid look at a few aging guys with a dream who wears their emotions on their sleeves and are completely unaffected by the fact that there is a camera following them.

I wanted these guys to succeed in the worst way, even though I know it would probably lead to disaster if they did. Anvil seem destined to be tragic heroes of one kind or another and I will be interested to see how the profile boost given to them by this film affects them. I would recommend this documentary to anyone, whether a fan of metal or not.

The film reaches its high point at the very end. It's an emotionally powerful, if simple moment, not just because of what happens, but because of Lips' reaction. Seeing how important something so insignificant to the rest of us was to him brought a small tear to my eye as his eyes welled up and even if only for one show, his lifetime of work had been justified.

Rolling rankings:
1. Inglourious Basterds (#168)
2. Where The Wild Things Are (#169)
3. Adventureland (#170)
4. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (#172)
5. Duplicity (#167)
6. Battle Royale (#165)
7. Into the Wild (#166)
8. Interview With The Vampire (#163)
9. I Love You, Man (#164)
10. The American Nightmare (#171)

Movie 171: The American Nightmare

The American Nightmare (2000) by Adam Simon
featuring John Landis, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, George A. Romero, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, etc.



In a nutshell: Considering the content that it had to work with, this documentary was a complete snooze-fest

Quick synopsis: A tour through some iconic horror movies of the '70's and '80's

Content: I looked for a film about horror movies after catching Bravo's great 100 Scariest Movie Moments around Halloween and this is what Netflix gave me. The directors that contribute commentary are a murderer's row (no pun intended) of great horror directors, but they just kind of take turns kissing each other's behinds. The documentary focuses in on one movie by each of the featured filmmakers and some clips are shown, but never anything riveting like the Bravo special.

The documentary seems very dated even though it is less than 10 years old. It almost feels as though it was constructed from stock footage of interviews rather than of interviews conducted specifically for this movie. None of the movies covered are even from the 90's. I understand that they are covering "classic" horror films, but it still would have been nice if they could have related them to more modern work.

The choice of films is strange. It seems like there were certain directors they wanted to include, but clips from their best films cost too much, so more obscure titles were chosen. David Cronenberg is a perfect example. Of all his movies, they chose Shivers? And of all the good Wes Craven movies, they chose Last House on the Left?

There's really not much to say here. I wouldn't recommend The American Nightmare to anyone. It was too focused on a small handful of films and didn't really discuss anything else. There is some insight gained, but not much. Then at the end, they totally lost me when the subject changed to the cold war rather than movies. The whole thing was amateurish.

Rolling rankings:
1. Inglourious Basterds (#168)
2. Do The Right Thing (#162)
3. Where The Wild Things Are (#169)
4. Adventureland (#170)
5. Duplicity (#167)
6. Battle Royale (#165)
7. Into the Wild (#166)
8. Interview With The Vampire (#163)
9. I Love You, Man (#164)
10. The American Nightmare (#171)

Movie 170: Adventureland

Adventureland (2009) by Greg Mottola
starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Ryan Reynolds



In a nutshell: A really great and tender movie that slipped under most radars last year due to some faulty marketing.

Quick synopsis: A young man returns home after graduating from college, only to find that his summer will not be going as planned and that he has to find a job.

Content: Superbad was a big hit for Greg Mottola, and while there are a few similar themes, Adventureland isn't even really a comedy at heart. Yet the studio powers that be decided to pretend that it was yet another teen comedy and covered up the fact that Adventureland is something significantly better. It's nearest kin that I can think of it Dazed & Confused and it comes complete with that film's sense of nostalgia. Except rather than the '70's, Adventureland focuses on 1987.

It's easy to look at Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role and think that Michael Cera must have been unavailable. But Eisenberg is less innocent and helpless and more complex than any of Cera's roles. I think that Adventureland is significantly better with Eisenberg that it would have been with Cera. I recently saw Eisenberg on Conan O'Brien promoting Zombieland, and he is a genuinely interesting and funny guy in a very self-depricating way. Not a trace of ego even as his star rises. I like him a lot despite his neuroses that remind me a little too much of Woody Allen. Hopefully he won't end up as typecast as Cera, but I'm not sure he will be able to play anything else.

Kristen Stewart of Twilight fame is surprisingly good as the love interest and Ryan Reynolds (Mr. Van Wilder himself) avoids his typical smugness that has plagued him in other movies. I even enjoyed a much more subdued than usual Bill Hader and his always-funny counterpart Kristen Wiig (both from SNL). The only other person I recognized was Martin Starr from the short-lived Judd Apatow television show, Freaks and Geeks. It's always good to see him turn up. And perhaps the best casting move made in Adventureland was NOT squeezing in Jonah Hill who seems to be involved in every single Apatow-family film in one form or another, often trying too hard to be funny.

So word has it that Adventureland was a very personal story for Greg Mottola who probably went through something vaguely resembling the events of Adventureland between college and his movie career. Everything is handled with a care that I only wished every movie was given. The characters are very well developed and it is easy to get sucked into their drama. But Adventureland is not melodramatic either. It finds just the right balance of nostalgia (taking place in a very dated theme park), comedy, romance and serious late-teen early-20's issues and should be held in the same regard as Dazed and Confused and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

It's about a kid's plans to move to NYC for grad school getting screwed up when his parents inform him that they can no longer chip in the money they had hoped to. So he takes a job at the local amusement park and quickly becomes immersed in the social life there, regressing a little personally. He is used to stimulating intellectual situations at college and suddenly finds himself wiping up puke. He also finds that he is suddenly quite the ladies man without much effort; something he was clearly not used to. From there he makes and loses friends, gets into trouble and tries to figure out what to do with himself. And it all seems realistic. It is not played up for the sake of theater. He doesn't have a heightened Cameron-level breakdown (see: Ferris Bueller). It's all believable and I related VERY well. Not sure if women will be able to relate as much, But I recognized a lot of situations from my own life and knew exactly what the character was thinking.

There are only two main things I can think of for my wishlist: (1) more of a conclusion for Martin Starr's character, (2) the ending didn't need to be spelled out quite as much. The ending is the only part when you know you are watching a movie because of cliches. Oh well. It doesn't ruin anything, it was just unnecessary.

So, if you like Dazed and Confused (and honestly...who doesn't?) please give Adventureland a try. It underperformed at the box office, and if we want Greg Mottola to get another shot at making a movie he wants to make, then it's gonna take some effort to make Adventureland into a DVD success. Don't be fooled by the trailers that would have you believe it is bascially another Superbad. I'm not saying Superbad was bad (it certainly wasn't) but Adventureland is something differnt. It takes many of the most interesting themes in Superbad and explores them in a more serious, yet still entertaining manner. This guy clearly has a nice touch and I look forward to whatever he is doing next.

One final note: as you would expect from a movie based largely on nostalgia, there is a great soundtrack highlighted by greats like The Replacements' Unsatisfied. Here's a preview




Rolling rankings:
1. Inglourious Basterds (#168)
2. Do The Right Thing (#162)
3. Where The Wild Things Are (#169)
4. Adventureland (#170)
5. Duplicity (#167)
6. Battle Royale (#165)
7. Into the Wild (#166)
8. Interview With The Vampire (#163)
9. I Love You, Man (#164)
10. The Happening (#161)