FILM OF THE WEEK & PODCAST: Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Gervasi, Reiner, "Lips")

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Directed by Sacha Gervasi
2008, 80 Minutes, U.S.A.

There's that cliché about getting the band back together, but what if you never stopped rocking out, even when you were well into middle age and still hadn't achieved fame or fortune? Such is the passionate journey of life-long friends Robb Reiner and Steve "Lips" Kudlow, co-founding members of Anvil (a/k/a "the Canadian demi-gods of metal"). The Terminal writer Sacha Gervasi, who met and roadied for Anvil as a teenager, directs this wonderfully tender if admittedly uproarious documentary about the duo, now in their fifties, and their underdog story to finally achieve the success that any band who influenced Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax deserves to.

Just before its U.S. theatrical release, I sat down for lunch with Gervasi, Reiner and "Lips" at Manhattan's Bowery Hotel, where we gabbed about friendship, fashion, the best summer holiday an English teenager could ever have, and my new Anvil-given nickname (which, frankly, is more flattering than the one Gervasi received over two decades ago).

To listen to the podcast, click here.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil opens today in New York and Los Angeles, and is already playing in Toronto. For more info, visit the official site.

Posted by ahillis at April 10, 2009 2:45 PM