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| Image courtesy of Bleeker Street |
In 1984, the world was introduced to the fictional metal band, Spinal Tap. Featuring David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), the band was featured in a faux documentary, This Is Spinal Tap, “directed” by Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner). The band would release an actual sophomore record, Break Like the Wind, in the late 1990s to coincide with a straight-to-video special, The Return of Spinal Tap. Now, forty years after the original mockumentary, Spinal Tap is set to reunite for a single concert, and Marty is on hand to capture the magic.
Spinal Tap’s humor – lampooning everything from general aging rock-and-roll tropes to feuding bandmates – is similar to that of comedy troupe Monty Python; it runs the gamut from absurd silliness to dry British humor, and expertly toggles between the two. As Spinal Tap come together fifteen years after their last hurrah, there are some fantastic moments, and it keeps tempo the way the original film did. In fact, there are many references to both previous films, and it helps to have seen them to get some of the jokes. But on its own, the film stands as a study in a group of aging oddballs trying to reconnect and create a show for their fans.
Spinal Tap’s members have all found modern niches for themselves – St. Hubbins writes music for podcasts, Smalls manages a glue museum, and Tufnel runs a cheese-and-guitar shop with his oversharing partner and plays electric guitar in a pub’s folk band. At first, they are all reluctant to reform Spinal Tap after so many years, but Marty DiBergi manages to corral them all to New Orleans for a single concert to celebrate their legacy. And, as is typical for Spinal Tap, not everything goes according to plan.
Besides the core trio, there are some new faces added to the cast to flesh out the band, including their new drummer, Didi Crockett (Valerie Franco) and C.J. Vanston as “Caucasian Jeff”, the new keyboardist. Paul Shaffer, Fran Drescher, and a few others round out the cast, reprising their roles from the original Spinal Tap film, and there are several special guests – including Sir Paul McCartney and Elton John. Even Garth Brooks makes an appearance.
Ultimately, Spinal Tap II is a humorous look at the aging rock scene, calling back a lot of what made Spinal Tap funny in the first place forty years ago. They represent all the quirks and challenges inherent to a music group’s reuniting after being apart for a long time, and some of these tropes don’t land quite as well as the simple strangeness in the characters and their various passions. But the first film stands as a cult classic, and those who love it will enjoy this official sequel, even if the straight-to-video “midquel” is largely forgotten. This film references both, and stands on its own for those who are new to Spinal Tap and its numerous oddities.
—Dana Culling