1984 · comedy
This Is Spinal Tap
Directed by Rob Reiner1h 22m1984
"This Is Spinal Tap" shines a light on the self-contained universe of a metal band struggling to get back on the charts, including everything from its complicated history of ups and downs, gold albums, name changes and undersold concert dates, along with the full host of requisite groupies, promoters, hangers-on and historians, sessions, release events and those special behind-the-scenes moments that keep it all real.
Our read: This Is Spinal Tap (1984) reads as a cosy, kinetic, inventive comedy entry — gentle in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Cosy, kinetic, gentle comedy, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured.
- cosy
- brisk
- gentle
- intimate
- funny
Watching This Is Spinal Tap tonight? Spin for your lens.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
More info & search links
How This Is Spinal Tap feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want the funniest rock mockumentary ever made, dense with quotable absurdity.”
Skip it tonight — You do not enjoy deadpan mockumentary humor or behind-the-scenes music satire.
Eight films that feel like this one.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like This Is Spinal Tap, with why →
Discussion
Make it a movie night.
Pick a mood, get a film the whole couch will enjoy, and give everyone something to watch for.
Pick tonight's film →