Anvil: The Story of Anvil

(VH1 Films, 10.6.2009)

Opening night films at festivals can be a dicey proposition. More often than not, classy, inoffensive, sponsor-friendly films are dragged out to make a good impression -- and then they're promptly forgotten by everyone in the room. Thankfully, the 2008 Hot Docs documentary film festival got underway with precisely the opposite breed of film: Anvil: The Story of Anvil, a skillfully-crafted and unexpectedly affecting doc that may be the most crowd-pleasing non-fiction film of the decade (take that, March of the Penguins). It also turned out to be one of the highlights of the festival and, with the exception of Man on Wire, the entry that reached the widest post-festival audience. Good work, Hot Docs.

Directed by walking resumé Sacha Gervasi -- co-writer of Steven Spielberg's The Terminal, former drummer for Bush (the band, not the president) and father of Geri Halliwell's child (!) -- this is the story of Canada's most influential metal band as they rock into their fifties and try to achieve some of the success that has eluded them for decades. In the early eighties, Anvil played to giant crowds alongside chart-toppers like Bon Jovi and Scorpions but, unlike virtually all of their peers, they never managed to catch a break.

Gervasi brings a screenwriter's sensibility to the film, using tight narrative structure and clearly-developed character arcs to give universal resonance to a story that could just as easily fall into the trap of serving die-hard metalheads and no one else. More than just an exploration of the metal world, this is a study of a hard-won battle to hang on to personal hope, dreams and ambitions, even in the face of economic hardship and the exhausting demands of family.

Imagine the absurdist humor of This Is Spinal Tap, the rock star therapy of Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and the troubled (but well-intentioned) dreamer tendencies of American Movie's Mark Borchardt -- not to mention the band in-fighting and hedonistic self-destructiveness of DiG! -- and you get some idea where this unexpectedly multi-faceted documentary is coming from.

Much to his mother's chagrin, Gervasi toured with the band Almost Famous-style when he was a teenager and learned then that he couldn't possibly write characters as colorful as these. But these aren't your everyday metalheads. What makes (singer/guitarist) Lips and (powerhouse drummer) Robb Reiner so appealing is their warmth, vulnerability and utter joy in doing what they love to do. The conflict between their raging shredder sound and Lipps' good-natured stage presence is intriguing, but it's also indicative of a broader tendency in their everyday lives.

These are fifty-year-old boys who still rank having-a-good-time above just about everything else, but they're also plagued by fear and disappointment, feelings that occasionally spill out in physical violence or viciously personal shouting matches. Gervasi's camera catches it all and the cumulative effect is a feeling of closeness between audience and subject that is unprecedented in any film involving rock stars, as they are typically much more guarded and cagey than Lips could ever summon the restraint to be.

These guys wear their hearts on their sleeves every day of their lives and, as far as I can tell, there are no boundaries between the audience and the subject's deepest, darkest fears, not to mention their most impassioned feelings of love... for their fans, their music, and each other.

It's a remarkably engaging documentary and VH1 Films gives it the DVD it deserves. In addition to a solid transfer, we get a commentary with Gervasi, Lips and Reiner, deleted scenes, un-used interview footage and more. Check it out immediately. -- Jonathan Doyle