The proliferation of documentary cinema over the past decade has given us a nice sized stack of memorable, moving, earth shattering, awareness raising and thought provoking films. With that has come a steaming heap of boring, schmaltzy, formulaic and fetishistic pieces that betray audiences, subjects and filmmakers equally. Anvil! The Story of Anvil isn’t quite the latter, but it certainly steers closer to that end of the spectrum. That being said, as far as docs go these days, it’s a pretty good movie.

Opening like an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music, the film chronicles the ups and downs (mostly downs) of heavy metal rockers Robb Reiner and Steve “Lips” Kudlow, whose promising rise in the early 1980s (playing in Tokyo alongside, Poison and Whitesnake, for example) never materialized into the mega careers of their dreams. No matter. Now into their 50s, the band is still together. Both Robb and Steve sport day-jobs while Anvil trudges on, playing local bars and parties with a small following of faithful fans. Read on…