Game of Thrones’ DB Weiss Delivers a Lighthearted Heavy Metal Comedy
The post Metal Lords Review: Game of Thrones’ DB Weiss Delivers Light-hearted Heavy Metal Comedy appeared first on Consequence.
The pitch: Heavy metal, with its knowingly ridiculous embrace of deafening volumes and exaggerated violent imagery, and its predominantly young, male audience, has been fertile territory for comedy ever since. It’s Spinal Tap.
And in recent decades, some enduring comedies have irreverently paid homage to hard rock bands and the teens who love them, including school of rock, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventureand DetroitRock City. Screenwriter DB Weiss, best known as co-creator and co-showrunner of game of thronesbrought us a potential new addition to this canon with metal lords.
In 2019, Weiss and his game of thrones Creative partner David Benioff has signed a $200 million deal to produce movies and series for Netflix. And while some of Benioff and Weiss’ more ambitious projects for other companies have been scrapped, including films in the star wars universe and an alternate history series for HBO called Confederatetheir productions for Netflix have so far been lighter: a Leslie Jones stand-up special, the satire of campus activism The chair (co-created by Benioff’s wife, Amanda Peet), and now…a teen comedy about a budding metal band.
For those about to switch: Kevin (Knives out‘s Jaeden Martell) is a nerdy high school marching band drummer. His best friend Hunter (Adrian Greensmith in his feature debut) is a guitarist who convinces Kevin to join his “post-death metal” band and learn how to play blastbeats with an upright bass pedal.
Hunter’s plan for rock stardom and world domination comes through battling the bands of Glenwood Lake High, where his underground metal heroes Killaton got their start (no relation to actual Syracuse metal band Killaton). So they work diligently on songs with titles like “Machinery of Torment”, plotting to defeat their soft rock rivals Mollycoddle. There are just a few issues: they don’t have a bassist, and their band’s name, SkullFucker, won’t fly at a school event.
When Kevin discovers that his crush Emily (Isis Hainsworth of Emma.) plays the cello, they jam together, and the drummer begins passing on Hunter’s metal lessons to her. Their relationship blossoms as Kevin entices Emily to join SkullFucker – unfortunately, Hunter is an emotionally stunted meathead who says things like “no Yokos” and “having a cellist instead of a bass player would be completely gay”.
Metal Lords (Netflix)
The Headbanger’s Ball: Director Peter Sollett’s most famous film, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, was a hollow, hokey attempt to capture the indie-rock zeitgeist circa 2008 in a romantic comedy. In metal lordsthe relationships and musical backdrop feel more authentic thanks to avowed metalhead Weiss’ script.
Meanwhile, Martell and Hainsworth have charming and believable chemistry as each other’s first loves, and the film is packed full of metal classics, including a surprisingly exhilarating car chase to Judas Priest’s “Painkiller.” , and inside baseball references: The vanity plaque on Kevin’s car is an Iron Maiden album title, and his Dungeon & Dragons character is named after Swedish guitar god Yngwie Malmsteen.
Like most modern teen comedies, metal lords is deeply indebted to the genre’s heyday of the ’80s. But since Hunter’s obsessions run towards classic 20th-century metal, and the film’s conflicts are driven by anachronistic rivalries between rockers in denim jackets and jocks in letterman jackets, i really wasn’t sure if metal lords was a vintage piece until I saw a few smartphones. Fortunately, metal lords gives us a rousing montage to Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” instead of another predictable John Hughes homage to this Simple Minds song.
Rage Against the Machine executive producer Tom Morello makes a brief appearance, alongside a few other metal and hard rock icons, in a brief but fun fantasy sequence. And Sollett fills every available frame of the film with band shirts, posters and instruments like Hunter’s replica of Eddie Van Halen’s signature red Frankenstrat.
But Metal Lords ultimately feels like a movie for people who prefer ‘Enter Sandman’ to ‘Master of Puppets’: there are no jokes here that would make a lifelong metalhead roar with laughter but go over the top. of the general public.
Metal Lords (Netflix)
The verdict: There hasn’t been a truly great teen comedy since 2019 Libraryotherwise 2010 Easy. And metal lordswhile it hits some nice high notes, never quite grips you like the best coming-of-age movies thanks to Peter Sollett’s flat and uninspired direction.
Martell’s voiceover narration is a cheap storytelling device that could have been left on the cutting room floor without the film losing anything essential. And considering it’s the first feature to come out of Netflix’s nine-figure investment in the Benioff and Weiss golden boy industry, metal lords feels surprisingly amateurish and low budget at times.
The three young leads play their characters perfectly, and it’s fun to watch each of them come out of their shell and embrace their inner rock star, especially Isis Hainsworth. But all the other characters are paper-thin with skimpy dialogue to drive the story forward – even seasoned scene-stealers like Joe Manganiello and Brett Gelman have so little to work with that you’ll barely remember they were in. metal lords.
Anyone who watched school of rock many times will probably enjoy metal lordsbut they won’t come back again and again like a worn cassette of reign in blood.
Where is it playing? metal lords hits the Netflix stage on Friday, April 8.
Metal Lords review: Game of Thrones’ DB Weiss delivers a lighthearted heavy metal comedy
Al Shipley
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