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Film · 1984 · Mockumentary

This is Spinal Tap

Directed by Rob Reiner
1984
★ 7.4 editorial score

Real musicians find it painful to watch because everything in it has happened to them: Reiner and his cast improvised almost the entire film from a bare outline.

“"They are treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry," says one fictitious rock critic...Spinal Tap does embody rock- and-roll at its most horrible, and yet ''This Is Spinal Tap,'' a mock-documentary following the band's American tour, isn't mean-spirited at all. It's much too affectionate for that. And it stays so wickedly close to the subject that it is very nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.”
— Janet Maslin · The New York Times

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