I’m jealous of anyone who hasn’t yet seen The Princess Bride. Some movies turn life up to 11 |
On a 1987 Sunday night at the Valhalla in Richmond, I first saw This Is Spinal Tap. For 82 perfect minutes, my BFF Pies and I laughed until we pretty much wet our stirrup pants.
Rob Reiner’s masterpiece – best mockumentary ever, best rock movie ever and it’s not even about a real band – was wrongtown. Smell The Glove, the tiny Stonehenge, “Hello Cleveland!”
Band members (from left) Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean portray members of the spoof British from Rob Reiner’s mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap.Credit: MGM Home Entertainment
A la Nigel Tufnel, Reiner turned parody up to 11. It felt like shorthand for life at the time. I was 20, living out of home in the inner city, high on self-belief, making fun from nothing. Spinal Tap met me there.
So when the awful news broke that Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner had been killed, I felt sucker-punched and so sad. Beyond the legal process now unfolding, the human horror of it is unbearable. A family story curdling so completely.
Reiner’s death is also a jolt because his films have been more than coming-of-age........