Documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky move from murder to metal on their latest effort, Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster.
Berlinger and Sinofsky are the team behind the docs Paradise Lost and Brother's Keeper, both involving controversial murder cases.
This time, they hooked up with the most successful heavy-metal band of all time, Metallica.
Fortunately, these rock stars offer up plenty of similar human drama, which makes for one helluva movie-going experience.
Ostensibly, the documentary was to detail the making of the band's latest album, St. Anger, in San Francisco.
What followed, however, were several crises that almost led to the band imploding after more than two decades together and sales of 90 million records worldwide.
The first development was the departure of bassist Jason Newsted after 14 years, due to lead singer-guitarist James Hetfield's reluctance to let him pursue a side project.
The group's management responded by hiring Phil Towle, a therapist/performance enhancement coach.
"This is really f---ing lame and weak," Newsted says.
Hetfield, it turns out, becomes the film's central character . He begins the documentary as a sullen, angry presence, who is unhappy about the prescence of Phil and the documentary crew and unmotivated in the studio.
Heated arguments between Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich eventually lead to Hetfield going into rehab for alcoholism, and the recording sessions are put on hold for almost a year.
"If he walked away from Metallica, I'm not sure that it would surprise me," Ulrich says in a therapy session.
Also featured is Dave Mustaine, Metallica's lead guitarist from 1982-83 who's still holding on to some major hurt.
"Do I wish it was 1982 all over again, and you guys woke me up and said, 'Hey, Dave, you know what? You need to go to AA?' Yeah," he says in a therapy session. "I'd give anything for that chance."
Unfortunately, when Hetfield returns to the studio, the fighting with Ulrich continues until the two finally come to a truce, and Hetfield emerges happier and more outspoken.
"Anger's an emotion that I've struggled with, pretty much all my life," he says at San Quentin Prison, where the band shot the first video for St. Anger.
"And if I hadn't had music in my life, it's quite possible I could be in here, or be dead."
Berlinger and Sinofsky include lighter moments in the film, such as fan appreciation day and the all-star auditions for a new bassist.
But, in the end, it's the fly-on-the-wall aspect of seeing these heavy-metal kingpins express intimate emotions that will have people -- or at the very least, metalheads -- flocking to movie theatres.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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