This Is Spinal Tap!

Spinal Tap has been credited with incredible cult status; it is 48^th in Empire’s 500 films of all time and got 96% from Rotten Tomatoes, a worthy feat by any means. Despite this, ‘This is Spinal Tap’ elicited mixed emotions from me.

‘This is Spinal Tap’ is a mockumentry with advert director Marty DiBergi (real director Rob Reiner) following fictional British rock band Spinal Tap as they tour the United States in order to promote their new album ‘Smell the Glove’. The group was originally started by childhood friends David St Hubbins (Michael Mikean) and Nigel Tufuel (Christopher Guest). They were later joined by bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), keyboard player Viv Savage (David Ruff) and an unprecedented number of drummers who all seem to die between tours. The entire band were in fact actors putting on English accents and adlibbing most of the script.

The film gives great mocking insight into the world of failing stardom, which certainly speaks to our generation if magazines such as ‘Heat’ or ‘OK!’ are anything to go by. It also looks into the style of fly on the wall documentaries, which again we are now more than familiar and fascinated with. It is sad witnessing the gradual decline of this band’s reputation and with it their confidence in themselves; this is made even more obvious when compared with spliced in  ‘archive’ footage of their best bits. This footage shows how the band once had all they wanted, but have since become irrelevant, a fact they fail to realise this. The movie is excellent at showing the band’s world and their subtle dynamics; we see how they argue and reconcile only to argue again. Orbiting the drama are other caricatures of the celebrity world, from the bumbling manager trying to keep it all together, to the interfering girl friend that believes she should take control of everything (remind you of any particular band member’s girlfriend?). The band themselves also mock celebrity culture with their public strops, inane backstage requests and inflated egos; celebrities clearly haven’t changed much in the past 16 years.

All of the characters are larger than life in order to make a point, but it is here where the comedy side of the film falls down for me. The gags very much had the feel of other films like ‘Wayne’s World’ and ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’, where everything that is said and done comes from very left field. Maybe I am just not what this movie is aimed at so I missed a lot of the genius behind it, but the jokes only made me chuckle a few times and for ‘the funniest film ever’ that is not a great score. This is disappointing as the film has a lot going for it, but without the humour it is just a wacky show that couldn’t hold my interest. By the end I found I was just waiting for the final number and it all to be over.

2:2- a cult classic that, for me at least, did not live up to expectation.

An accurate parody of celebrity culture, but not a funny one

and that is where the film missed out.

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