Anvil! The Story of Anvil: 9/10

I laughed. I almost cried. And had to use all my powers of persuasion to convince my friend that we'd just seen a real-life documentary, not a mockumentary/rockumentary in the style of This Is Spinal Tap.

I can understand why he found it so hard to believe me. And not just because Anvil's drummer shares a name with the director of that eponymous classic. Or that Stonehenge, the unexplained rocks in southern England about which Spinal Tap sang a ridiculous homage, makes a cameo appearance in Anvil.

The incredible tale of two nice Jewish boys still trying to hit the big-time with their heavy metal band, 30 years after they peaked, is both funny, sad, and ultimately touching.

"In the summer of 1984," we learn in both the trailer and the film's opening sequence, "Anvil toured the world with some of the biggest names in rock...All of them sold millions of records around the world...All of them, but one..."

Now in their 50s, lead singer Lips and drummer Robb Reiner still can't understand why they failed where rock gods Whitesnake, Scorpions and Bon Jovi succeeded. Yet they're a stoical bunch, like wide-eyed schoolboys who still dare to dream.

They embark on a European tour that was doomed from the start. They fight. They break-up. They get shafted. But they keep plugging away. By the end of this film, you may still loathe the band's music and dildo-strumming guitar-playing; but you'll have a place in your heart for these hitherto unheralded journeymen of rock.