Luvved It!

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2002)

Musings: To think that now, after 20-odd years, there are STILL hair bands out there seriously toiling, with their skin-tight leather pants and padded crotches, make-up and jewelry! I wonder how many of these pretty little girly men have affected an English accent? And if they are not really popular, where their music and performing makes them enough money to live on, to buy some insularity, where do they go when they are not on stage or rehearsing indoors "with the lads"? I would not want to go out to the grocery store or hardware store or any other place looking like that. Surely, in those getups, you'd be inviting an ass-kicking, would you not?

That's what always amazed me about the Rolling Stones: Jagger played the part of the tough "Street-Fighting Man", but at the same time the little twerp, who weighed, what, about 140, would prance around in his capes and makeup like a bleeding fairy. But I liked the Stones for years anyway (but not now because they are too old and make too much money for playing music that they played 30+ years ago; it's a disgrace and they should be ashamed). Unlke most of us, and like the Stones, Spinal Tap didn't have to face any of this aggro because they, at least at one time, could fill stadiums! And in this movie they are running on the fumes of their previous success.

Sorry about the digression. EVERYTHING about this movie is perfect. I was raised on rock (Stones, Beatles, Jeff Beck, The Who, Rod Stewart, Ten Years After, Blodwyn Pig, King Crimson, etc.) and this music and its practitioners had been screaming out for parody. Thank God that mssrs. Guest, McKean, Reiner, et.al. have done it up right. The endless series of exploding drummers, the choking on SOMEONE ELSE'S vomit, the fatal gardening accidents, the hissy fit over the dressing room refreshments, Fred Willard, the one-foot actual size reproduction of Stonehenge, Derek being trapped in the plastic pod, Paul Shaffer's character begging them to kick his ass, the manager, the girl friend, the songs, the lyrics, the accents.

Christopher Guest is an absolute genius and a fantastic actor. This is a TRUE classic and so are the other ones such as Waiting For Guffman and Best in Show.
Now, does anyone know where I can find a copy of "Break Like the Wind"?