12 Best Movies Starring The Simpsons Actors
1. This Is Spinal Tap
It was a mighty close call for the top entry on this list, but for its groundbreaking style and sheer cleverness, This is Spinal Tap deserves the top spot. Harry Shearer plays bassist Derek Smalls, the band member synonymous with the mutton chop beard. Alongside Nigel, David and a heck of a lot of drummers and keyboardists, Smalls makes up part of heavy metal group Spinal Tap, a fictional band who amp everything to 11.
The mockumentary style was perfected here, Rob Reiner creating great humour with every fake interview in his role as actor/director. The Christopher Guest written script is filled with amusing scenarios that Shearer, Guest himself as Nigel and Michael McKean as David continually make the most of. Interviews exploring the ever evolving rotation of Drummers and Keyboardists is a highlight, as is the iconic scene where the band can't quite find the stage.
The mockumentary style exploded after this film's success, with Guest and Shearer collaborating on several other projects including A Mighty Wind and the amateur theatre spoof Waiting for Guffman. But it is this film that is Guest's and Shearer's masterpiece, taking a topic that deserved our mockery and rung every hilarious moment out of it they could find.
There may come a day when a better mockumentary is made, but there hasn't been anything close to knocking this one off its perch yet.