Do you like movies? How about music? How about the film with music that blends the two in charming, unpretentious, and completely unsophisticated ways? If you answered “yes” to any of these, “Metal Lords” is about to come into your life and make it whole.
The latest entry on Netflix‘s Top-10 section, this indie film is low-key in concept–“a story about two people forming a band”–and thoroughly winning in execution. Its tone may be sweet and gentle, but it has the grit to resist going exactly where you’d expect it to. And it’s the first film in years to mix music and cinema in a natural way that calls to mind John Carney’s classics (“Once,” “Sing Street”). It not only has a ton of heavy metal music from Lemmy Kilmister, lead singer of the band Motorhead, and Tom Morello, an executive producer on the project, but it’s also got the bottled in a bond naturalness of teenage angst, which is what makes this movie work.
READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2022
Director Peter Sollet captures the uncertainty of youth with the soul of “Sing Street” and the rage of a Rage Against the Machine guitar solo. There’s a lot here you’ve seen before in other movies, but there’s enough raw power to keep our high school rockers sounding fresh. Kevin (Jaeden Martell) is a nerd who plays in the marching band, as well as his friend’s metal band, “Skull Fuckers,” which is getting ready to perform in their very first rock-off. There’s just one problem: They don’t have a Bassist to provide the bottom end, and they don’t want to be compared to the most famous guitar and drums act, the very non-metal White Stripes.
That’s where our bottom comes in. Emily (Isis Hainsworth) is a British girl stuck in the states with an anger problem and a tendency to throw things at people. But she plays cello, which is kinda like a bass, and she can play Metallica a whole lot better than the guy who shows up to tryouts on acid. So they give her a shot, but not before they go through a number of high school rituals: bullies, parties, parents who don’t understand them, teachers who don’t allow them to branch out. They aren’t allowed to be themselves on campus, not that that’s going to stop these “Fuckers” from trying.
The arbitrary rules give Kevin something to rebel against, and with Emily for a muse and Hunter (Adrian Greensmith) a mentor in all things rock n’ roll, he and the band start to churn out some head-banging hits (plucked from Sollet’s playlist). They cycle through a variety of influences, including Slipknot, Black Sabbath and Motorhead, and each song will have you jonesing for the soundtrack, especially if you have some steam of your own to blow off. I mean, who doesn’t need to let loose after a long day at work?
Sollet nails that happy-angry sweet spot, a concept that Kevin learns about from the music he plays. In his first major role, Martell deftly embodies Kevin as both an awkward, naive student and bold, charismatic bandmate. Though the film addresses the harsh realities of high school, as it progresses, it more clearly becomes a fond reminisce, an old memory seen through the haze of nostalgia, drunk on the dreams of those who didn’t know anything but to dream. It’s a sweetly funny, damning, and poignant depiction of this very specific time in life–at once angsty and lovely–when anything is possible. And it has a killer soundtrack to boot. [B]
