Despite its merciless dissection of the dreadfulness of the several unnamed groups who provide the film’s inspiration, This Is Spinal Tap does try to have it both ways. The kinetically shot Spinal Tap concerts are thronged with insanely appreciative fans, but otherwise the film gets a lot of cruel humour out of the fact that the group are, in the words of an overheard disc jockey, “currently residing in the ‘Where Are They Now?’ file”. Furthermore, while the lyrics of the Spinal Tap songs are richly parodic of much that is awful, offensive or sexist about rock music, they are as difficult to hear as the genuine article, prompting one to hope that the useful lyric sheet included in the publicity handout will be widely distributed. Otherwise, there are a few too many overextended gags and, out of an inordinately large supporting cast, only Fran Drescher and Paul Shaffer as record company stooges make much impact. However, the squabbles among the group and their managers are extremely well done – especially when Jeanine suggests an astrological theme concert, and Ian Faith argues with the Polymer executives about the supposedly sexist sleeve of Smell the Glove (showing remarkable restraint, Reiner keeps the rejected design off-screen).