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Go To Eleven: <em>This Is Spinal Tap</em> Will Have 30th Anniversary Screening At NY Film Festival


By

Jen Chung

Published Aug 26, 2014

Modified Aug 26, 2014


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Derek Smalls, David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel

 


By

Jen Chung

Published Aug 26, 2014

Modified Aug 26, 2014


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It's time to revisit "Smell the Glove," spontaneously combusting drummers and the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap. As part of this year's New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center will have a special 30th Anniversary screening of the film.

The film, co-written by stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer and director Rob Reiner (who is also in the film, as a filmmaker), has become a classic for both its parody of rock music and stardom as well as the "terrible" music. And there are so many memorable moments. Like:

When he reviewed it, Roger Ebert wrote, "Rock musicians never die, they just fade away, and 'This Is Spinal Tap' is a movie about a British rock group that is rocketing to the bottom of the charts. It also is one of the funniest, most intelligent, most original films of the year... The rock group does not really exist, but the best thing about this film is that it could. The music, the staging, the special effects, the backstage feuding and the pseudo-profound philosophizing are right out of a hundred other rock groups and a dozen other documentaries about rock."

Guest, who played Nigel Tufnel, will be at the screening.

Tickets for this year's NYFF go on sale to the general public at noon on Sunday, September 7, but members of the Film Society of Lincoln Center get to pick movies during a member pre-sale period.

Tagged

new york film festival

this is spinal tap


Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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