One of Metallica's roadies (Dane DeHaan) is told to retrieve a parcel from a broken down tour van. He accepts, takes some drugs and weird things begin to occur, including; A car crash, Riots, and a gas-mask horseman who slings nooses round necks, and hangs them from lampposts. Think of the 'After Hours' narrative where a guy is going round city at night and things happen.
Whether you like this, or hate, this film will entirely depend if you like Metallica. I, personally, love two of their songs 'One' and 'Nothing Else Matters', so I was open minded to listen to more. None of them, particularly, stood out, but those two songs were phenomenal. I feel like they could have changed the staging more (like 'Don't Think' which is the best concert film I have seen), and even the repetitive camera shots. A good concert film consists of amazing music AND an interesting use of visuals, otherwise you have a 'best of' album. Thus the film relies on DeHaan's second narrative.
The second narrative occurs before and after each of the songs, often in 20 second segments. If you combine them all together, you might get 10 minutes overall. The lighting is inspired by Refn, with dark red overpowering most other colours. It's visually striking and appealing, but as you get into it, you get taken back to the sweating band (who are in their 40s and 50s). The plot doesn't make any sense whatsoever, it's incredibly 'rock and roll' with plenty of events where DeHaan should die, but doesn't. I've seen the film and I'm not sure what the hell is happening. Did hell open up or something? Is there a message to it?
I do feel like DeHaan has the greatest agent in Hollywood, as he keeps acting in fantastic films ('Chronice', 'The Place Beyond the Pines', 'Kill Your Darlings'). Similar to Gosling's stint two years ago ('Lars and the Real Girl', 'Blue Valentine', 'Drive', 'The Place Beyond the Pines') who is now A-list. After 'The Amazing Spider Man 2' he is destined for stardom. In this, he's pretty good, even though he doesn't say anything.
TO CONCLUDE
A solid attempt at a concert movie.
SCORE
76
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