After 4 weeks of heavy films (back to back Nicholson dramas and the Godfathers) I knew I would need to palate cleanse with a lighter, comedic flick. Now, comedy is a hard genre to pick from, namely because humor is super-subjective and critics/awarding bodies don’t spend as much time with the genre. But after marinating on a (still to come) screening of The Jerk, I ultimately chose to watch This Is Spinal Tap.
There’s something spectacular about the mockumentary format and this one has got to be the best, no? To operate on a level that parodies both a topic (rock ’n roll) and a genre (documentary) is some next level meta. Considering comedy today thrives on over-the-top caricature, placing unreasonably silly people into unrealistically silly premises (think Zoolander, Anchorman, Hangover, etc.), a comedy that obsessively focused on establishing its reality is refreshing. But, it is also admittedly limiting. While I enjoyed each stand-alone skit or riff, the plot's arch was as uninteresting to me as, well, as a real documentary!
Ultimately, for a film parent to as many references as this one, its biggest fault was that I knew a lot of the punchlines. Between watching the trailer, chatting with friends, and a few comedy essays online, each of the major hit moments were awfully familiar. I mean, c’mon—IMDB actually rates the film on a scale of “11”! What was left was a series of clever and charming bits that never really had me LOL’ing, but rather smirking and giggling (on the inside).
That’s still a special kind of magic and I’m sure as shit glad that I finally saw this film. It just both was, and wasn’t, my favorite type of comedy.