‘Not a second of wasted time’: Rob Reiner’s golden run from Spinal Tap to A Few Good Men was breathtaking

In his pomp there was no genre or story this director couldn’t turn to gold – despite never being nominated for an Oscar

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Consumption today is driven by the algorithm: “If you liked that, you’ll love this …” But Rob Reiner was a film-maker who beat the algorithm in the days before there was even one to beat. He was impossible to predict, at least during his golden years. How could one man make the most inspired mockumentary of all time, a handful of zinging romcoms, a coming-of-age yarn, a knowing fairytale comedy, a gruesome yet screamingly camp thriller and a hokey-but-fun courtroom drama? Well, he did – and all in the first decade of his directing career.

US audiences loved him first as an actor: he was the liberal son-in-law known as Meathead in nearly 200 episodes of the late-1970s sitcom All in the Family, based on the UK favourite Till Death Us Do Part. He remained in front of the camera for his 1984 directorial debut This Is Spinal Tap, which chronicled an entire band of meatheads. In fact, his face is the very first thing we see: he plays the ingratiating documentary-maker Marty DiBergi, an affectionate parody of Martin Scorsese as glimpsed in the off-stage scenes of The Last Waltz, his concert film about the Band. Spinal Tap’s chief target, though, was the speed with which fame can turn you dumb – or make idiots believe themselves to be geniuses. The heavy metal band, played by Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, put it best: “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”