About as Funny as Death of a Salesman

Rating: 5/10 (24 January 2001)

Here is the story of the members of a rock band who, because of their stupidity and wilful blindness, together with the lies and deception imposed on them by their manager, refuse to listen to record companies who don't back them up, critics who pan them, radio stations that won't play their music, promoters who cancel their gigs and fans who don't care any more. Over the course of the movie, their illusions are slowly and painfully stripped away, as they come face-to-face with themselves as has-beens and failures. It's the same story as Death of a Salesman. And about as funny.
Rob Reiner has cleverly imitated the style of a documentary film, and the actors are all so extremely plausible in these roles that it comes as no surprise that many people watch this film without realizing that it is fiction or have become fans of a nonexistent group. Read the other reviews if you don't believe this. People regularly have to be told that this film is a joke, which means usually that it's not a very good joke.
As a satire, this film also falls short. If this imaginary group is held up to ridicule, Reiner has carefully insulated the entire music industry from that ridicule. If Spinal Tap is ridiculous, the fact that everyone seems to reject them implies that the music industry is too savvy to be that ridiculous. Satire that doesn't poke fun at real people isn't satire.
There are occasional flashes of genuine brilliance, such as the amp that "goes to 11". Unfortunately the film shies away from the absurdity of such concepts rather than exploiting them. Having stated the concept it is then dismissed as something only Nigel Tufnel would be stupid enough to to think.
Mostly, however, the film relies upon its uncanny resemblance to a real rockumentary to entertain. There is no question that a really effective imitation can be very entertaining. Ask anyone who has seen an Elvis impersonator. Aficionados of the heavy metal genre will recognize a number of allusions to real musicians here, but such allusions will be lost on less well-informed viewers.
You might think that the film might be an effective parody or caricature. But the illusion is too close to the reality--parody and caricature get their humour from grossly emphasizing some aspect of the thing imitated, like making Mick Jagger's lips the size of a football. There is none of that here.
In short, there is not sufficient humour to counterweigh the essentially tragic nature of the story presented. There is, as you might say, a very fine line between tragedy and comedy.
Watch it for the cleverness and the truly fine acting throughout, but not for laughs unless you like laughing at cripples.