Robb Reiner & Steve “Lips” Kudlow of the heavy metal band Anvil
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Shortly after putting in my two cents on Plan B, I came down with a relentless, niggling bug. Between napping, eating chicken soup and ingesting a series of opalescent horse pills that CVS dares us to “compare to the active ingredients in Vicks DayQuil”, I settled down to catch up on a backlog of DVD’s. Being in a near catatonic state doesn’t lend itself to making fine distinctions in cinematic quality–I was hoping fever would improve upon Jacques Tati’s over-studied homages to Buster Keaton; it didn’t–but I’ll nevertheless go ahead and recommend Anvil: The Story of Anvil, the saga of a heavy metal band that never quite hit the big time. What begins as the real life equivalent of Spinal Tap ends up a raucous, at times cringe-inducing and ultimately touching homage to the sacrifices, passions, travails and rewards of the artist’s life–Plans A and B definitely included.
© 2011 Mario Naves
Too Much Art 