Anvil! The Story of Anvil: A Canadian Metal Band's Great Feature-Length Doc

When I ask whether Hurd is still a member, Reiner jumps in: “We’re the world’s most powerfullest, awesomest three-piece power trio that exists.” Nigel Tufnel couldn’t have said it better.

Do they mind the comparisons? “It’s not a coincidence,” Lips admits. “Obviously, anybody making a rock documentary is gonna be instantly compared to Spinal Tap. We embraced that instead of repelling it or trying to deny it. We actually used it to benefit ourselves. It’s a great commercial hook. It’s a way for people to relate to what this is, to a degree, because once sitting down and watching the movie, it’s a much different movie.”

Steve “Lips” Kudlow (right, naked) and Robb Reiner (left, wearing fannypack), of Anvil

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More About

• Sacha Gervasi
• Anvil (Band)
• Robb Reiner
• Metal and Hardcore
• Documentary Films

Hilarity aside, the film is also a testament to an enduring friendship — a bromance, if you will — between two geezers in their 50s who still share the same rock-star fantasy. Lips’ never-say-die attitude is especially inspiring. And if every band just fought, cried, said sooryand hugged it out, there’d be a lot fewer reunion tours.

Tenacity has not only given Anvil their cinematic justice but has also thrown them a few surprises: Keanu Reeves hosted the movie’s London premiere, with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s wife, Sarah, in attendance; Lips and Reiner just published their autobiography (currently only available in the U.K.), which includes a foreword by Slash; and the band is set to play England’s upcoming Download Festival, while a petition to get them to Glastonbury is circulating online.

Clearly, if you must, and you should, there are no better people to seek advice from. “If you really believe in yourself and you really believe in what you’re doing, then just stick with it no matter what anybody says, thinks or does,” Reiner offers. “That’s the only thing us rockers have.”

Directed by Sacha Gervasi, released by Abramorama, exclusively at the Landmark Nuart. Lips and Reiner conduct a Q&A after the April 10, 7:30 p.m. screening at the Landmark Nuart.