Film

Anvil! The Story of Anvil

Anvil! The Story of Anvil follows two lifelong friends, still swinging for stardom in their fifties, on a tour that goes wrong in almost every way a tour can. It's funny, then suddenly not, then funny again — a rockumentary that keeps landing exactly on the line between comedy and heartbreak. Warm, unpretentious, and weirdly moving: less about metal than about refusing to grow up, or give up.

TMDb rating7.6

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This Is Spinal Tap1984

The mockumentary Anvil accidentally remade as nonfiction. Watch them together and every joke about a disastrous tour turns out to be something that genuinely happened to a real band.

But If you've seen it a dozen times already, the resemblance is obvious rather than revelatory.

This Is Spinal Tap poster

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster2004

The band Anvil influenced, decades later, falling apart in a therapist's office instead of a broken-down van. Same mythology, wildly different economics — money buying no more peace of mind than poverty did.

But Two and a half hours of very rich men in group therapy; slow going if you don't already care about Metallica.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster poster

Dig!2004

Two bands, one that made it and one that didn't, filmed obsessively for seven years. It's the tragicomic flip side of Anvil — talent and friendship curdling instead of enduring.

But Meaner and sadder than Anvil; the central rivalry gets genuinely uncomfortable to sit through.

Dig! poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Wrestler2008

Randy 'The Ram' is Lips without the comic relief: same aging body, same refusal to accept it's over, staged as tragedy instead of comedy.

Mickey Rourke plays an aging performer risking his broken-down body for one more night in the spotlight, decades past his prime. The same refusal to quit as Lips, played entirely straight, and devastating.

But A punishing watch — no jokes, no comeback fairy tale, just the real cost of never letting go.

The Wrestler poster
More like this (8)

American Movie1999

A broke Wisconsin filmmaker chases his horror-movie dream with the same doomed, lovable stubbornness as Lips chasing a comeback. One of the funniest, kindest documentaries ever made about failure.

But Some of the humour comes from a man who can't catch a break, which can feel close to mockery.

American Movie poster

Searching for Sugar Man2012

A musician who never got his due at home discovers, decades later, he's a legend elsewhere. Where Anvil is about persisting without reward, this is reward arriving absurdly, beautifully late.

But Slicker and more mystery-driven than Anvil's scrappiness — less about friendship, more about one man's strange fate.

Searching for Sugar Man poster

Beware of Mr. Baker2012no page yet

Cream's legendary, lethal drummer, old and furious in African exile — what happens when talent and self-destruction outlast fame. A rock documentary with real teeth.

But Baker is magnificently unlikeable, nowhere near as huggable as Lips and Robb, by design.

Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary1997no page yet

Ten Texans compete to keep a hand on a pickup truck longer than anyone else for a shot at winning it. No music at all, but the same endurance and dignity that make Anvil sing.

But Zero rock and roll — this substitutes trucks and heatstroke for guitars and vans.

The Wrecking Crew2008

The unsung session musicians behind half of sixties pop, finally getting their due. A gentler companion piece about the gap between fame and the actual, unglamorous work of making records.

But Lower stakes and less drama than Anvil — a tribute more than a story with a real arc.

The Wrecking Crew poster

Marwencol2010

A man rebuilds his shattered life by photographing a miniature WWII town he's built in his backyard. No music, but the same tender fascination with a private, unembarrassed devotion to a strange dream.

But Much stranger and sadder territory — trauma and obsession rather than rock-and-roll comedy.

Marwencol poster

Inside Llewyn Davis2013

Fiction doing exactly what Anvil does with real footage: a musician stuck in a loop of almost-success, told with the same mix of comedy and quiet despair.

A folk musician circles the same failing career week after week, Coen brothers style — dry, sad, and very funny in a way that never quite lets him win.

But Deliberately circular and unresolved by design; frustrating if you need your underdog to actually triumph.

Inside Llewyn Davis poster

Salesman1969

The direct-cinema ancestor of Anvil's whole approach: unglamorous men, unglamorous jobs, a camera that just watches them fail and keep going anyway.

Decades before rockumentaries existed, the Maysles brothers followed door-to-door Bible salesmen with the same unflinching, sympathetic camera — men chasing a dream that keeps outrunning them, in grainy black and white.

But Slow and plotless by modern standards, about theology and commerce rather than music — a real shift in subject and pace.

Salesman poster

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Recommended by

This Is Spinal Tap, Wayne's World, Best Worst Movie, Searching for Sugar Man, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, The Mighty Boosh, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Dig!, Flight of the Conchords, I'm Alan Partridge, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Pearl Jam Twenty