10 Greatest Mockumentary Films Of All Time
1. This Is Spinal Tap
This was always going to be number one. It was inevitable. This is Spinal Tap is the definitive benchmark for the mockumentary genre. Alongside Anchorman and The Italian Job, This is Spinal Tap is maybe the most genuinely quotable movie ever made from dusting for vomit to the always funny ‘Hello Cleveland’. Rob Reiner’s mockumentary is an exercise in rock theology.
It’s funny but never cruel, the band members are continually made fun of but never looked down upon. They’re spoiled, fragile, fading rock and roll stars but we love them for it. They get lost on the way to the stage, have pagan structure related issues and are trying desperately to cling on to the pipe dream they want to smoke out of.
Transcending the movie genre and bleeding into real life some thirty years after it was first released, This is Spinal Tap is the rare case of a mockumentary that came true. The mockumentary that lived.