Along with a lot of viewers, it seems, Jeff Wells has fallen hard for the sweetly sad rock documentary “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” — and demands that the Academy take notice:
How can Sacha Gervasi’s Anvil! The Story of Anvil not wind up being nominated for Best Feature Documentary Oscar? It’s got heart, it’s about over-the-hill, down-on-their-luck artists getting their groove back, it’s well made, it’s connecting with audiences, it’s funny, it’s lowbrow-highbrow. How can Academy’s doc committee ignore it?
Who doesn’t love Anvil!?
Yours truly, for one — though I wish I did. Much like Ramin Bahrani’s “Goodbye Solo,” which I discussed recently, I saw “Anvil!” in a festival context last autumn, kinda liked it, completely forgot about it, and am now a bit befuddled by the rapturous critical reception it has received.
I’m not completely resistant to its charms — as I wrote back in October, it’s a witty, compassionate piece of work with a keen eye for absurd detail. What it didn’t succeed in doing was to make me care more than fleetingly about the affably deluded, self-oriented figures at its centre; not having much interest in their music, I didn’t find the band members particularly compelling as personalities either, which for me meant the film never rose above the anecdotally diverting.
Perhaps I need to give it another go. But if there aren’t five better documentaries released in the course of 2009, I’ll be both surprised and a little disappointed. In the meantime, feel free to tell me what I’m missing.
Comments
One response to “Rock me gently”
I liked it better than you but think American Movie covers some of the same territory with a bit more to offer.