We have heard the hype about The Dirt, the biopic about Mötley Crüe for a long time. They have tried to make this film for ages, while it languished in development hell, finally getting made and out now streaming on Netflix. By the bands’ own admission, much like the book, the film is full of exaggerated lurid rock star clichés and partially real stories about the band. It’s just so out there and real. Too real for most people, like the band was at times. Continue reading
Category Archives: Film Reviews
FILM REVIEW: “Lords of Chaos” by Jonas Åkerlund
Hype and all that comes with it is a curious mistress to any fandom. It can take an unknown band in a tiny European country and create a global music phenomenon. It also can help eat the subject of it from the inside out. This is not only a microcosm of the rise of first-wave Norwegian Black Metal, but also the movie Lords of Chaos directed by Jonas Åkerlund (Gunpowder Sky, Vice Media/Insurgent Media, 20th Century Fox, Scott Free Productions). We’ve heard about this movie for so long, that I’m sure that some have very high expectations for this film. The film also has its many detractors as protectors of their genre, and those who never wanted to see this film made. We’re not going to use this review to retell the story we’ve all seen and heard before, but rather rate the merits of this film. Continue reading
FILM REVIEW: Bohemian Rhapsody – Bryan Singer & Dexter Fletcher
Biopics are a tough type of genre to analyze. Neither a documentary or so often a honest linear accounting of events, these types of films are a type of Cliff’s Notes version of history. This is even more prickly with music biopics because no one has a lower tolerance for bullshit and rose-colored glasses than a die-hard fan of a band or artist. In the case of Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody, the fact that the film got made at all after development hell, Sasha Baron Cohen quitting the project, director Bryan Singer being fired towards the end of production, Dexter Fletcher coming on to finish it up and more. Still, you have to tip the hat for the job 20th Century Fox did pulling this together and getting the film out into theaters. And the theater is where you should see this film because it is a spectacle and your cell phone or your living room can’t contain it. Continue reading