This Is Spinal Tap

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1984
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Rob Reiner
Genre:	Heavy metal mockumentary
Starring:	Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/
Tagline:	Does for rock and roll what "The Sound of Music" did for hills
Favourite line:	Marty DiBergi: "It's very pretty." Nigel Tufnel: "Yeah, I've been fooling around with it for a few months." Marty DiBergi: "It's a bit of a departure from what you normally play." Nigel Tufnel: "It's part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I'm working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why." Marty DiBergi: "It's very nice." Nigel Tufnel: "You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know, very much like - I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's sort of in between those, really. It's like a Mach piece, really. It's sort of..." Marty DiBergi: "What do you call this?" Nigel Tufnel: "Well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump"."

Riotously funny mockumemtary that spawned a genre in its own right.

Spinal Tap are a heavy metal band, hoping to break into the big time with the release of their masterpiece, Smell the Glove, a record of such epic brilliance they are sure to be rock and roll legends. Only two things stand in their way:
1 - the cover, featuring a semi-clad lady on all fours quite literally Smelling the Glove, has fallen foul of the distributors. It's misogynistic, they claim. Pesky spoil sports.
2 - The incompetence of the band members and management, resulting in a signing session no-one turns up to, and the bass player being forced to play the set from inside a pod they were all meant to emerge from during the opening track.
3 - The drummers keep on dying.

Clearly influential on such fare as People Like Us and The Office, this plays a piece of fiction as though it were fact, making use of a documentary filming style and vérité trappings, spinning the narrative by sound bites and interviews alone.
Imaginative, inventive and, crucially, very very funny, this should appeal to most, but will have a particular place in the heart for anyone into their old school metal.