Screenwriters/Composers: Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer
Cinematographer: Peter Smokler
Editors: Kent Beyda, Kim Secrist
Cast:
Michael McKean
Christopher Guest
Harry Shearer
Rob Reiner
June Chadwick
Tony Hendra
R.J. Parnell
David Kaff
Fran Drescher
Patrick Macnee
Dana Carvey
Billy Crystal
Bruno Kirby
Howard Hesseman
Anjelica Huston
Fred Willard
Paul Shaffer
Rating: 7.6/10
Title: Best in Show
Year: 2000
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Christopher Guest
Screenwriters: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy
Composer: CJ Vanston
Cinematographer: Roberto Schaefer
Editor: Robert Leighton
Cast:
Eugene Levy
Catherine O’Hara
Christopher Guest
John Michael Higgins
Michael McKean
Michael Hitchcock
Parker Posey
Jennifer Coolidge
Jane Lynch
Larry Miller
Linda Kash
Fred Willard
Jim Piddock
Ed Begley Jr.
Bob Balaban
Don Lake
Malcolm Stewart
Rating: 7.4/10
Title: A Mighty Wind
Year: 2003
Genre: Comedy, Music
Country: USA
Language: English, Yiddish
Director: Christopher Guest
Screenwriters: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy
Cinematographer: Arlene Nelson
Editor: Robert Leighton
Cast:
Catherine O’Hara
Eugene Levy
Harry Shearer
Michael McKean
Christopher Guest
Jane Lynch
John Michael Higgins
Parker Posey
Fred Willard
Bob Balaban
Jennifer Coolidge
Jim Piddock
Don Lake
Deborah Theaker
Ed Begley Jr.
Michael Hitchcock
Christopher Moynihan
Larry Miller
Rachael Harris
Paul Dooley
Bill Cobbs
Rating: 7.7/10
Title: Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
Year: 2025
Genre: Comedy, Music
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Rob Reiner
Screenwriters/Composers: Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer
Cinematographer: Lincoln Else
Editor: Bob Joyce
Cast:
Michael McKean
Christopher Guest
Harry Shearer
Rob Reiner
Valerie Franco
CJ Vanston
Kerry Godliman
Chris Addison
Elton John
Paul McCartney
Fran Drescher
June Chadwick
Paul Shaffer
Nina Conti
Don Lake
John Michael Higgins
Questlove
Chad Smith
Lars Ulrich
Garth Brooks
Trisha Yearwood
Little Freddie King
Rating: 7.0/10
The passings of Rob Reiner (1947-2025) and Catherine O’Hara (1954-2026) whack us like a dumb-founding double whammy. The former and his wife became the victims of an unthinkable parricide whereas the latter’s succumbing to an acute illness really takes us aback as her career seemed still high-flying before this abrupt end. More so, O'Hara is in contention for an impending Actor Award trophy for her fabulous turn in the comedy series THE STUDIO, and she might land a posthumous win as the highest tribute from her peers.
Watching this quartet of films is also tantamount to witness the birth, the refinement, and the valedictory nostalgia of a genre, viz. mockumentary, that has altered the way how we perceive reality. Reiner’s contribution was one of foundational architecture; he provided the structural skeleton of the mockumentary and defined the "how" of the satire through superbly constructed, documentary-style realism. Conversely, O’Hara’s presence in Guest's ensemble pieces provided the genre’s arrhythmic heart, populating those structures with an unconventional, character-driven energy that made the absurdity feel stimulatingly human, a testimony to a performer's top-flight versatility in creating a full-flooded character who can knock us dead.
In 1984, playing the documentarian Marty DiBergi in his directorial feature debut THIS IS SPINAL TAP, Reiner did something revolutionary by tricking the world hooked on a fictive English heavy metal band "Spinal Tap". Before this film, comedy was often signaled by a wink to the camera, an obvious pregnant pause, or a swelling score. Reiner strips that away, pioneering the "awkward pause" - the three seconds after a character says something profoundly stupid where the camera simply lingers. His direction is an act of faux-journalism performed on a subject that is a satirical fabrication, treating a mock heavy metal band with the same gravity that D.A. Pennebaker treated Bob Dylan, pointing up the irreconcilable conflict between a long-time bandmate and an interloping significant other of the opposite sex (Chadwick is fierce and fiery as David’s girlfriend Jeannie).
However, Reiner’s architecture requires the right inhabitants to breathe life into the void. This comes in the form of the "holy trinity" of the band: McKean, Guest, and Shearer, not only as proficient musicians, they also oil the wheels with their goodly contribution of improvisations (the . As David St. Hubbins, McKean stands for the band’s intellectual (if misplaced) center, a man who believes "saucy jack" is a legitimate operatic subject. Shearer’s Derek Smalls emulates the perfect foil of a man forever trapped in his own “second banana” self-knowledge and sometimes a laughing stock (the metal detector embarrassment or entrapped inside a cocoon prop on the stage). And then there is Guest’s Nigel Tufnel, a man of "earnest stupidity", who navigates the world with the bewildered confidence of someone who has successfully confused "genius" with "having an amplifier that goes to eleven. Guest, in particular, becomes the bridge between Reiner’s directorial discipline and the future of the genre. His obsession with the "purity" of the craft - whether it is the size of cocktail bread or the precise labeling of an amp - set the tone for the obsessive characters that will define his own directorial career. The "holy trinity" inhabits a lifestyle of "loudness" (aided massively by their talent as virtuosic musicians and vocalists) that hides a deep, quiet confusion about their place in a fast-changing world.
SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES is a sequel corralling the trio for a final concert four decades after, also woefully marks the full circle of Reiner's fruitful career, who aptly shifts the tone from the sharp satire of 1984's excess to a meditation on endurance and twilight years, without losing his signature kookiness. Reiner’s decision to revisit these characters is less a nostalgic cash-grab than a philosophical statement. He shows us that the "mock" in mockumentary also means "to imitate" - specifically, to imitate the process of aging. He directs this final chapter with a lightness of touch that suggests he realizes the joke is almost over, and he wants to make sure we heard the punchline one last time.
The original trio - McKean, Guest, and Shearer - returning with a weariness that felt earned, including the running gag of the fatality of the band's drummers (the death-defying task is buoyantly shouldered on by queer drummer Valerie Franco, whose macrobiotic regimen has its own death-dealing risk, please stay tuned until the film's final credits!). Their bickering has transformed from the petty dissension of youth into the existential dread of old age and unsolved grievance of their past. David and Nigel are not on speaking terms over a decade.
The humor here isn't the sharp, improvisational lightning of the 80s. It’s more of a slow-burn cringe. Watching three men in their late 70s try to navigate a world of TikTok users, plus a tone-deaf, irreverent promoter (Addison, revelling in a fitting caricature of a bloody-minded twerp), is inherently tragicomic, and a bit irksome. Even the choice of high-profile musician cameos (Paul McCartney and Elton John) is self-evident not to pass the baton but to wallow in the soggy mud of nostalgia while the band must prove they can still strum and belt out their music numbers with defiant piss and vinegar.
It is Guest who takes a leaf from Reiner's book to diligently plough the fertile soils of mockumentary. BEST IN SHOW has evolved from Reiner’s grungy and handheld aesthetic of the on-the-road rock concert into something more polished. ButtThe structure remains a Reiner-esque autopsy of niche obsession, proving that his 1984 formula - taking a trivial subject and treating it as a matter of life and death - is a universal skeleton that could support any level of absurdity.
The film is a surgical examination of how humans use pets to fill the cavernous holes in their own identities. In most films, the animals are the "performers", but in BEST IN SHOW, the humans are the ones performing for an invisible judge. The canines - Norwich terrier, weimaraner, bloodhound, Shih Tzu and poodle - are the only grounded, authentic beings on screen. They exist in a state of Zen-like acceptance. The humans are grooming the dogs to be "perfect," but they are actually preening themselves for the attention they lack in their daily lives. The dog show is the only place where these people feel truly "seen".
As Cookie Fleck, who constantly runs into her ex-lovers, to the consternation and discomfiture of her hubby Gerry (Levy), O’Hara plays her with a breezy, guilt-free warmth. She isn't a "femme fatale"; she’s just incredibly well-liked. She treats her past like a delightful scrapbook, making her the most socially adjusted person in a film full of neurotics.
Levy's Gerry is a man whose literal two left feet served as a metaphor for his desperate attempt to keep up with a wife who moves through the world like a whirlwind of past regrets. Levy is a godsend of "polite curiosity" and "micro-stammer". Together, him and O'Hara form a domestic unit that feels both entirely bizarre and brilliantly recognizable. The ensemble is rounded out by the late, great Willard as Buck Laughlin, whose color commentary provides a Reiner-esque layer of "unearned confidence." Willard’s ability to say the wrong thing with total authority is the perfect foil to the meticulous preparation of the dog owners. Meanwhile, Posey and Hitchcock give us a yuppie terror via the terrifyingly high-strung Meg and Hamilton Swan; Coolidge and Lynch (a sapphic attraction), Higgins and McKean (playing a gay couple) further expand the satirical scope with a whimsical, campy queerness. Lastly, Guest himself puts on a straight face and impressively hones his skills for ventriloquy. For all its affectionate quirkiness, BEST IN SHOW is best appreciated for its collectively constructed and knitted interpersonal kaleoscope. But if you expect to watch some high-wire canine performances, a "real" documentary is where you should be looking for (here the competition sequences are understandably amateurish).
Three years later, Guest dishes up the follow-up A MIGHTY WIND, about a folk music reunion concert in which three folk bands reunite for a television performance for the first time in decades, in the wake of the passing of a legendary folk music producer (ironically, his name gets barely mentioned in the concert).
The film gathers aging harmonizers, estranged duos, and wide-eyed purists beneath the soft glow of acoustic righteousness. Guest’s mockumentary style lets awkwardness breathe. The camera lingers just long enough for sincerity to curdle into self-delusion. The Folksmen, played by Guest, McKean and Shearer (a reunion of Spinal Tap trio but in a different music sphere), perform with such grave solemnity that every lyric about drifting winds feels like a minor spiritual emergency. Shearer’s performance as Mark Shubb, the folk singer with a secret, provided the film’s most unexpected and tender punchline. Meanwhile, the New Main Street Singers (lead by a beaming Higgins) represents the corporate, "up with people" side of folk - a group so aggressively happy they border on the sinister.
But the film’s secret ache belongs to Mitch & Mickey (again, the immaculate pair of Levy and O’Hara). Their history - romantic, musical, chemically complicated - surfaces in hesitant glances and half-remembered harmonies. Levy’s vacant fragility and O’Hara’s brittle poise create moments that slip unexpectedly from parody into something like grief. Especially the former, who portrays Mitch as a sentient sigh wrapped in corduroy, performing with the terrifyingly quiet grace of a man who has been emotionally taxidermied and is only now beginning to thaw. When they sing together, the joke dissolves; the music, disarmingly earnest, reveals how art preserves what people cannot.
The songs, written in pitch-perfect imitation of early-1960s folk, are funny because they are so accurate, the Oscar-nominated duet "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" is a case in point. The film never mocks the genre’s idealism outright; instead, it exposes how time erodes purity while leaving behind ritual. Reunions promise resurrection, but mostly deliver polite applause and backstage panic. If THIS IS SPINAL TAP skewers rock excess, A MIGHTY WIND turns its gaze toward gentler vanities - the need to matter, to harmonize, to believe one’s voice once carried farther than it did. It’s a comedy of faded chords, played softly. And like the best folk songs, it lingers long after the last earnest note fades into the wind.
As the credits roll on SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES, one is left with a profound sense of gratitude and sadness. These films are achievements of a brilliant cohort of improvisational geniuses: Guest’s inscrutability, Levy’s heart, McKean’s carriage, Willard’s glorious lunacy, O'Hara's wit, Coolidge's goofiness, Lynch's vibrancy, Posey's strop, among others. In the heaven of mockumentaries, the stage is exactly the right size, the dogs never have accidents on the rug, and the amps always go to eleven. The end continues, indeed. But the laughter they leave behind is a "mighty wind" that won't soon be silenced.
referential entries: Rob Reiner’s STAND BY ME (1986, 7.3/10); Christopher Guest’s WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996, 7.9/10).
由于设计精巧，表演精湛，很多不知情的观众，在看过本片之后还纷纷去搜购腰椎穿刺乐队的唱片，但显然这样的做法因一切都是假的最后无疾而终。但鉴于观众对于这支乐队的强烈喜爱，1992年的时候，片中的几位主演还真的“重组”了这支乐队，不但上了很多电视节目的通告，还开展了一轮大型巡演，他们的专辑《Break Like the wind》也在一片热捧中问世了。
其实还是看得出不是纪录片的。不过很多地方做的很真，很有摇滚乐队生活气息。以后的一些类似片子基本也是采用了相似的手法。
大量的场景，快速的切换。手持摄像机的使用方法。
Title: This Is Spinal Tap
Year: 1984
Genre: Comedy, Music
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Rob Reiner
Screenwriters/Composers: Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer
Cinematographer: Peter Smokler
Editors: Kent Beyda, Kim Secrist
Cast:
Michael McKean
Christopher Guest
Harry Shearer
Rob Reiner
June Chadwick
Tony Hendra
R.J. Parnell
David Kaff
Fran Drescher
Patrick Macnee
Dana Carvey
Billy Crystal
Bruno Kirby
Howard Hesseman
Anjelica Huston
Fred Willard
Paul Shaffer
Rating: 7.6/10
Title: Best in Show
Year: 2000
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Christopher Guest
Screenwriters: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy
Composer: CJ Vanston
Cinematographer: Roberto Schaefer
Editor: Robert Leighton
Cast:
Eugene Levy
Catherine O’Hara
Christopher Guest
John Michael Higgins
Michael McKean
Michael Hitchcock
Parker Posey
Jennifer Coolidge
Jane Lynch
Larry Miller
Linda Kash
Fred Willard
Jim Piddock
Ed Begley Jr.
Bob Balaban
Don Lake
Malcolm Stewart
Rating: 7.4/10
Title: A Mighty Wind
Year: 2003
Genre: Comedy, Music
Country: USA
Language: English, Yiddish
Director: Christopher Guest
Screenwriters: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy
Cinematographer: Arlene Nelson
Editor: Robert Leighton
Cast:
Catherine O’Hara
Eugene Levy
Harry Shearer
Michael McKean
Christopher Guest
Jane Lynch
John Michael Higgins
Parker Posey
Fred Willard
Bob Balaban
Jennifer Coolidge
Jim Piddock
Don Lake
Deborah Theaker
Ed Begley Jr.
Michael Hitchcock
Christopher Moynihan
Larry Miller
Rachael Harris
Paul Dooley
Bill Cobbs
Rating: 7.7/10
Title: Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
Year: 2025
Genre: Comedy, Music
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Rob Reiner
Screenwriters/Composers: Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer
Cinematographer: Lincoln Else
Editor: Bob Joyce
Cast:
Michael McKean
Christopher Guest
Harry Shearer
Rob Reiner
Valerie Franco
CJ Vanston
Kerry Godliman
Chris Addison
Elton John
Paul McCartney
Fran Drescher
June Chadwick
Paul Shaffer
Nina Conti
Don Lake
John Michael Higgins
Questlove
Chad Smith
Lars Ulrich
Garth Brooks
Trisha Yearwood
Little Freddie King
Rating: 7.0/10
The passings of Rob Reiner (1947-2025) and Catherine O’Hara (1954-2026) whack us like a dumb-founding double whammy. The former and his wife became the victims of an unthinkable parricide whereas the latter’s succumbing to an acute illness really takes us aback as her career seemed still high-flying before this abrupt end. More so, O'Hara is in contention for an impending Actor Award trophy for her fabulous turn in the comedy series THE STUDIO, and she might land a posthumous win as the highest tribute from her peers.
Watching this quartet of films is also tantamount to witness the birth, the refinement, and the valedictory nostalgia of a genre, viz. mockumentary, that has altered the way how we perceive reality. Reiner’s contribution was one of foundational architecture; he provided the structural skeleton of the mockumentary and defined the "how" of the satire through superbly constructed, documentary-style realism. Conversely, O’Hara’s presence in Guest's ensemble pieces provided the genre’s arrhythmic heart, populating those structures with an unconventional, character-driven energy that made the absurdity feel stimulatingly human, a testimony to a performer's top-flight versatility in creating a full-flooded character who can knock us dead.
In 1984, playing the documentarian Marty DiBergi in his directorial feature debut THIS IS SPINAL TAP, Reiner did something revolutionary by tricking the world hooked on a fictive English heavy metal band "Spinal Tap". Before this film, comedy was often signaled by a wink to the camera, an obvious pregnant pause, or a swelling score. Reiner strips that away, pioneering the "awkward pause" - the three seconds after a character says something profoundly stupid where the camera simply lingers. His direction is an act of faux-journalism performed on a subject that is a satirical fabrication, treating a mock heavy metal band with the same gravity that D.A. Pennebaker treated Bob Dylan, pointing up the irreconcilable conflict between a long-time bandmate and an interloping significant other of the opposite sex (Chadwick is fierce and fiery as David’s girlfriend Jeannie).
However, Reiner’s architecture requires the right inhabitants to breathe life into the void. This comes in the form of the "holy trinity" of the band: McKean, Guest, and Shearer, not only as proficient musicians, they also oil the wheels with their goodly contribution of improvisations (the . As David St. Hubbins, McKean stands for the band’s intellectual (if misplaced) center, a man who believes "saucy jack" is a legitimate operatic subject. Shearer’s Derek Smalls emulates the perfect foil of a man forever trapped in his own “second banana” self-knowledge and sometimes a laughing stock (the metal detector embarrassment or entrapped inside a cocoon prop on the stage). And then there is Guest’s Nigel Tufnel, a man of "earnest stupidity", who navigates the world with the bewildered confidence of someone who has successfully confused "genius" with "having an amplifier that goes to eleven. Guest, in particular, becomes the bridge between Reiner’s directorial discipline and the future of the genre. His obsession with the "purity" of the craft - whether it is the size of cocktail bread or the precise labeling of an amp - set the tone for the obsessive characters that will define his own directorial career. The "holy trinity" inhabits a lifestyle of "loudness" (aided massively by their talent as virtuosic musicians and vocalists) that hides a deep, quiet confusion about their place in a fast-changing world.
SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES is a sequel corralling the trio for a final concert four decades after, also woefully marks the full circle of Reiner's fruitful career, who aptly shifts the tone from the sharp satire of 1984's excess to a meditation on endurance and twilight years, without losing his signature kookiness. Reiner’s decision to revisit these characters is less a nostalgic cash-grab than a philosophical statement. He shows us that the "mock" in mockumentary also means "to imitate" - specifically, to imitate the process of aging. He directs this final chapter with a lightness of touch that suggests he realizes the joke is almost over, and he wants to make sure we heard the punchline one last time.
The original trio - McKean, Guest, and Shearer - returning with a weariness that felt earned, including the running gag of the fatality of the band's drummers (the death-defying task is buoyantly shouldered on by queer drummer Valerie Franco, whose macrobiotic regimen has its own death-dealing risk, please stay tuned until the film's final credits!). Their bickering has transformed from the petty dissension of youth into the existential dread of old age and unsolved grievance of their past. David and Nigel are not on speaking terms over a decade.
The humor here isn't the sharp, improvisational lightning of the 80s. It’s more of a slow-burn cringe. Watching three men in their late 70s try to navigate a world of TikTok users, plus a tone-deaf, irreverent promoter (Addison, revelling in a fitting caricature of a bloody-minded twerp), is inherently tragicomic, and a bit irksome. Even the choice of high-profile musician cameos (Paul McCartney and Elton John) is self-evident not to pass the baton but to wallow in the soggy mud of nostalgia while the band must prove they can still strum and belt out their music numbers with defiant piss and vinegar.
It is Guest who takes a leaf from Reiner's book to diligently plough the fertile soils of mockumentary. BEST IN SHOW has evolved from Reiner’s grungy and handheld aesthetic of the on-the-road rock concert into something more polished. ButtThe structure remains a Reiner-esque autopsy of niche obsession, proving that his 1984 formula - taking a trivial subject and treating it as a matter of life and death - is a universal skeleton that could support any level of absurdity.
The film is a surgical examination of how humans use pets to fill the cavernous holes in their own identities. In most films, the animals are the "performers", but in BEST IN SHOW, the humans are the ones performing for an invisible judge. The canines - Norwich terrier, weimaraner, bloodhound, Shih Tzu and poodle - are the only grounded, authentic beings on screen. They exist in a state of Zen-like acceptance. The humans are grooming the dogs to be "perfect," but they are actually preening themselves for the attention they lack in their daily lives. The dog show is the only place where these people feel truly "seen".
As Cookie Fleck, who constantly runs into her ex-lovers, to the consternation and discomfiture of her hubby Gerry (Levy), O’Hara plays her with a breezy, guilt-free warmth. She isn't a "femme fatale"; she’s just incredibly well-liked. She treats her past like a delightful scrapbook, making her the most socially adjusted person in a film full of neurotics.
Levy's Gerry is a man whose literal two left feet served as a metaphor for his desperate attempt to keep up with a wife who moves through the world like a whirlwind of past regrets. Levy is a godsend of "polite curiosity" and "micro-stammer". Together, him and O'Hara form a domestic unit that feels both entirely bizarre and brilliantly recognizable. The ensemble is rounded out by the late, great Willard as Buck Laughlin, whose color commentary provides a Reiner-esque layer of "unearned confidence." Willard’s ability to say the wrong thing with total authority is the perfect foil to the meticulous preparation of the dog owners. Meanwhile, Posey and Hitchcock give us a yuppie terror via the terrifyingly high-strung Meg and Hamilton Swan; Coolidge and Lynch (a sapphic attraction), Higgins and McKean (playing a gay couple) further expand the satirical scope with a whimsical, campy queerness. Lastly, Guest himself puts on a straight face and impressively hones his skills for ventriloquy. For all its affectionate quirkiness, BEST IN SHOW is best appreciated for its collectively constructed and knitted interpersonal kaleoscope. But if you expect to watch some high-wire canine performances, a "real" documentary is where you should be looking for (here the competition sequences are understandably amateurish).
Three years later, Guest dishes up the follow-up A MIGHTY WIND, about a folk music reunion concert in which three folk bands reunite for a television performance for the first time in decades, in the wake of the passing of a legendary folk music producer (ironically, his name gets barely mentioned in the concert).
The film gathers aging harmonizers, estranged duos, and wide-eyed purists beneath the soft glow of acoustic righteousness. Guest’s mockumentary style lets awkwardness breathe. The camera lingers just long enough for sincerity to curdle into self-delusion. The Folksmen, played by Guest, McKean and Shearer (a reunion of Spinal Tap trio but in a different music sphere), perform with such grave solemnity that every lyric about drifting winds feels like a minor spiritual emergency. Shearer’s performance as Mark Shubb, the folk singer with a secret, provided the film’s most unexpected and tender punchline. Meanwhile, the New Main Street Singers (lead by a beaming Higgins) represents the corporate, "up with people" side of folk - a group so aggressively happy they border on the sinister.
But the film’s secret ache belongs to Mitch & Mickey (again, the immaculate pair of Levy and O’Hara). Their history - romantic, musical, chemically complicated - surfaces in hesitant glances and half-remembered harmonies. Levy’s vacant fragility and O’Hara’s brittle poise create moments that slip unexpectedly from parody into something like grief. Especially the former, who portrays Mitch as a sentient sigh wrapped in corduroy, performing with the terrifyingly quiet grace of a man who has been emotionally taxidermied and is only now beginning to thaw. When they sing together, the joke dissolves; the music, disarmingly earnest, reveals how art preserves what people cannot.
The songs, written in pitch-perfect imitation of early-1960s folk, are funny because they are so accurate, the Oscar-nominated duet "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" is a case in point. The film never mocks the genre’s idealism outright; instead, it exposes how time erodes purity while leaving behind ritual. Reunions promise resurrection, but mostly deliver polite applause and backstage panic. If THIS IS SPINAL TAP skewers rock excess, A MIGHTY WIND turns its gaze toward gentler vanities - the need to matter, to harmonize, to believe one’s voice once carried farther than it did. It’s a comedy of faded chords, played softly. And like the best folk songs, it lingers long after the last earnest note fades into the wind.
As the credits roll on SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES, one is left with a profound sense of gratitude and sadness. These films are achievements of a brilliant cohort of improvisational geniuses: Guest’s inscrutability, Levy’s heart, McKean’s carriage, Willard’s glorious lunacy, O'Hara's wit, Coolidge's goofiness, Lynch's vibrancy, Posey's strop, among others. In the heaven of mockumentaries, the stage is exactly the right size, the dogs never have accidents on the rug, and the amps always go to eleven. The end continues, indeed. But the laughter they leave behind is a "mighty wind" that won't soon be silenced.
referential entries: Rob Reiner’s STAND BY ME (1986, 7.3/10); Christopher Guest’s WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996, 7.9/10).
英国人出了名的会讲一本正经的笑话，同样擅长严肃地嘲讽。伪记录片这种东西果然也只有英国人发明得出来，传言摇滚界有十部最伟大的纪录片，《摇滚万万岁》就是摇滚界第一部伪纪录片。n
影片拍摄于1984年，记录了英国传奇重金属Spinal Tap摇滚乐团成长兴衰史。媒体评论它为“低调的幽默与犀利，每次观影后都会有新的发现”。《娱乐周刊》、《帝国》以及《纽约时报》等媒体都把此片评为过最佳喜剧之一。
它真正的引人入胜处，是将一个虚拟乐队拍得比任何一个乐队更真实。导演抓到了英式摇滚乐的精髓然后放大，比如他们的脆弱敏感，他们在舞台上的爆发力，乐手们的幼稚病和自恋；再比如一个乐队总要有几个非正常死亡的乐手，什么死于他人的呕吐物啊，什么在众目睽睽之下自燃，最后只剩下鼓架上一滴水珠…甚至有好事者专门搜集过乐手各种离奇死亡原因，感觉一个摇滚乐队要是没死过一两个人都不好意思出门跟人说我们是玩摇滚的。
将这种调侃和搞笑做得这么认真严肃一向是英式喜剧的拿手好菜。n
Tom Waits（英国老乡）曾透露他第一次看此片时为其现实主义色彩流下了热泪。U2乐队的The Edge在加入摇滚名人堂时也说过，“你看过这片子就会知道模仿我们有多容易，我第一次看这电影时没有笑，而是哭了。因为回想起了太多自己的岁月。” （名人背书处）n
喝完导演的这碗毒鸡汤，我还是得该听听，该蹦迪蹦迪，我哪真爱什么乐队啊，不过是想要摇摆着身体片刻，感受到的片刻欢愉而已。 n
淡定补充两个重要八卦：n1.主演就是导演本人，男二号男三号就是两个编剧 QwQ 。导演莱纳本来想自己出演乐队的第四位成员，但Shearer说他穿紧身裤不好看后就放弃了。n2.尽管乐队是虚拟的，但影片的成功让 McKean, Guest以及 Shearer走上了摇滚之路，他们发行了几张专辑并进行了巡演。
隔壁电影 x MAO场 2月n荐片人 千与
《摇滚万岁》 This is Spinal Tap 年代：1984年 / 类型：反记录 / 导演：罗伯·雷纳 / 主演：罗伯·雷纳、托尼·汉德拉
《看电影》的一句话评价：虚拟摇滚乐队的虚拟秘史。
最近几年，包括热波、草莓、迷笛在内的大陆音乐节逐渐开始风生水起。如果你去过现场，就会感到所谓小众音乐的帽子都是胡扯，那成千上万的观众会让你知道什么才是为乐痴狂的一群。尽管很多乐队你都叫不出名字，也压根没听过他们的歌，可是当音乐响起总是会让你有一种跟着人潮放纵自己的冲动。这就是摇滚的力量。
但是摇滚还有一种力量，需要你深入到乐队、唱片以及行业的背后，才能看清楚。
摇滚真相
这部《摇滚万岁》的主角是一支叫“腰椎穿刺”的乐队。这支乐队由主唱大卫·圣·胡宾斯、主吉他手奈基·塔夫诺、贝斯手德瑞克·斯莫斯、鼓手米克·史林普顿和键盘手威·赛维志五人组成。这支来自英国的乐队有17年的摇滚生涯，发行了15张专辑。他们在1982年即将发行最新专辑《闻闻手套》，同时要在美国举行全国巡回演唱会。趁着这个机会，导演迪伯就拍摄了这部纪录片。
关于乐队的历史，腰椎穿刺乐队是1964年又大卫和奈基这对从小一起长大的兄弟一手创办起来的。当时他们起名叫“原始人”，但却与另一支乐队重名。他们便改为“新原始人”，而那支乐队改名为“正常人”。最后他们还是改为“腰椎穿刺”。乐队的鼓手变换的最为频繁，先后有好几个鼓手死去，要么是在舞台上被炸死，要么是被呕吐物噎死。后来，现有的鼓手米克也死了，乐队再次换了鼓手。
腰椎穿刺曾经备受年轻人的喜爱。他们的歌曲既会唱到“责任”“分享”这样阳光励志的主题，也会唱一些诸如“舔舐爱人的舞鞋”“我只想要耳鼓流血”“性农场的女人/你可看见我的导弹已高高举起”之类的让人摸不着头脑的东西。但就像谁都要遵守娱乐圈的游戏规则一样，红极一时的腰椎穿刺乐队在美国的巡演也遭遇到了一些前所未有的困境和低谷。
先是专辑的发行受阻。乐队成员自己设计的专辑封套上有一个女人趴在地上闻男人伸过来的手套的画面，但是唱片公司认为这样的封套太具有攻击性和性别歧视，要求他们改掉封面，但乐队成员坚决不妥协。最终，专辑面世了，成员们失望的发现，专辑封套居然是全黑的！在娱乐圈里面对选择的时候，很多人都是身不由己。
然后是演出的缩水。孟菲斯等地的专场演唱会被迫取消，他们得到的说法是“广告资金不够”。在音像店里搞签售，结果门可罗雀，一个粉丝都没有来。开了演唱会，他们又故意要让观众多花时间等待，然后他们自己非绕着路登台，以便吊足观众胃口。奈基设计了巨石阵式的舞台场景，结果由于制作方的制作失误，超小号的巨石阵成了观众的笑柄。这样的明星显然在观众心目中的地位大幅度的降低。
更要命的是人员内部的不合。经纪人伊安和大卫的女友珍妮产生了矛盾，大卫要带着珍妮一同旅行，但伊安却无法忍受女人，于是伊安与乐队一拍两散。珍妮的设计理念也和奈基相左，奈基要搞成巨石阵，珍妮却要把人打扮成动物。在一次演出中，乐器出了故障，奈基一怒之下摔了吉他，离开了乐队。从此之后，大卫和奈基这对曾经的好兄弟成了陌路。红颜祸水这话放在娱乐圈里更是千真万确的真理。
就这样，一路跌跌撞撞，这支当红的乐队遭遇了事业低谷。就在奈基离开半年之后，一次演出前，奈基回来了，同时带回了一个消息，伊安希望乐队重组，并且到日本演出。最终，两兄弟重归于好，乐队也在日本取得了巨大的成功。
娱乐圈里的起起伏伏让他们经历了很多，名和利他们还是得到了，可是失去的呢？腰椎穿刺乐队不是一个人在战斗，他们的战斗史又会代表多少和他们一样激情摇滚的热血青年们呢？
纪录假相
影史上有十部最著名的摇滚纪录片，它们都是将镜头对准某个摇滚乐队，呈现它们最真实化的一面。这十部电影是《紫雨》《摇滚芭比》《大门》《谁人的汤米》《席德与南茜》《巴迪哈利傅》《脂粉猫王》《一夜狂欢》《几近成名》以及这部《摇滚万岁》。但《摇滚万岁》在其中是最特别的，因为只有它表现的是一支虚构出来的摇滚乐队。其实，历史上并没有腰椎穿刺乐队，这是导演用“伪纪录片”的手法杜撰的一段摇滚传奇。伪纪录片在影史上并不罕见，早于它两年问世的《变色龙》就是伍迪·艾伦在“虚拟纪录”领域的开拓性尝试。这样做的好处就是，可以避开一些不必要的障碍，尽可能的表现自己对某些人某些事的态度，而锋芒度却不会减弱。
《摇滚万岁》中，腰椎穿刺乐队的经历颇为坎坷，经历过成功，也有过失败的低谷，但从中可以看出在很多摇滚圈中共有的通病：虚伪、抵触、叛逆、不择手段、与他人为敌，与社会为敌。导演运用极富喜剧色彩的方式呈现一幕幕令人捧腹不已的场景，而辛辣的讽刺意味正藏身其中，让人看后留下深刻的印象。
由于设计精巧，表演精湛，很多不知情的观众，在看过本片之后还纷纷去搜购腰椎穿刺乐队的唱片，但显然这样的做法因一切都是假的最后无疾而终。但鉴于观众对于这支乐队的强烈喜爱，1992年的时候，片中的几位主演还真的“重组”了这支乐队，不但上了很多电视节目的通告，还开展了一轮大型巡演，他们的专辑《Break Like the wind》也在一片热捧中问世了。
反类型指数：
★★★☆
适宜人群：
摇滚迷
在线观看地址：
http://hd.openv.com/mov_play-hdmovie_20090805_7082098.html