You know the film. It’s a film you have never heard of. The cast might be composed of actors you know and love or complete unknowns. A documentary that sounds interesting about a topic you might like. You stumble across it on streaming and wonder if it will be worth two hours of your time. This series will be devoted to reviewing films like these, the strange items that pop up when you are looking for a flick on the streaming service of your choice. This is “We Found It On Streaming”
FILM: Metal Lords
Release Date: April 8, 2022
Run Time: 97 Minutes.
Streaming Service(s): Netflix
Rating: R for language throughout, sexual references, nudity, and drug/alcohol use – all involving teens
The teenage coming-of-age stories are so popular because the genre is so malleable. You want to write a story about a girl taking on a bunch of mean girls? It fits. A love story set against a backdrop of an epic house party. That works. A friendship challenged by a new girl arrival set to a heavy metal soundtrack? That’s Metal Lords.
Hunter (Adrian Greensmith) is an outcast that has found a home in the world of heavy metal. He has big plans. He is going to become a heavy metal star. And he is going to drag his nerdy best friend Kevin (Jaeden Martell) along with him. Kevin is a drum major who is a quick learner in the way of metal drumming. The pair plans to enter their school’s Battle of the Bands, as soon as they can find a bassist.
Or at least that was the plan until Kevin met Emily (Isis Hainsworth), a girl whose lack of serotonin levels in her brain causes her to fly into rages when she goes off her meds. Their meet cute turns into a budding romance, as Emily, a talented cellist, bonds with Kevin as they both learn some metal classics together. This doesn’t sit well with Hunter, who rejects Kevin’s attempts to bring Emily into the band but might be more upset that his best friend has found “A Yoko” that will take Kevin away from him.
I am not what you might call a metalhead, but I have an appreciation for the music genre. It was hard not to. In the area I grew up in, metal was god. I went to school with a lot of kids that resembled Hunter and Kevin, and I hung out in a lot of bars and clubs with young adults like them too. And the film rings true to me in this area.
Written by former Game of Thrones showrunner D.B. Weiss and directed by Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist director Peter Sollett, the film creates a believable world familiar to many teen comedies–with butthead bullies and distant fathers–but with characters that are more well developed than you normally see in the genre.
Part of the credit goes to Sollett, This film has the same laid-back vibe of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. The film takes time to let us know the characters, so we are invested in them as the film unspools.
Credit must also go to the actors. Greensmith’s Hunter is a difficult character. He is so single-mindedly focused on metal and becoming a star that forces everyone else away. He is a dick, to his friends, to his bullies, to his elders. In another actor’s hand, the character would be absolutely horrible to watch. Greensmith always shows the pain that compels him to do these actions. His eyes let the audience know that he might not want to do the things he does, but to him it is a defense mechanism.
Kudos should also go to Martell and Hainsworth. The have a tangible, adorkable type of chemistry that makes their on-screen romance believable. You actually believe Kevin is the right man for Emily, and you understand what Emily sees in Kevin. They make a very believable couple.
Extra credit should go to Hainsworth. I’d be lying if I said that the fact that Emily’s mental disorder is at times played for laughs made me uncomfortable. But it didn’t take me completely out the film because of the way Hainsworth showed Emily’s struggles. One scene in particular grounded the character for me. She was a revelation. I hope to see her acting again.
And while the overall tone is laid-back, there are scenes of overall goofiness. There’s a car chase, a jailbreak and a Mount Rushmore of heavy metal legends appear before one of the characters in their time of need. But if you are engaged in the film as a whole, these flights of fancy shouldn’t bother you all that much.
If I had to describe the film in one word, the word I’d use might alienate some metalheads–charming. This film is charming. It wraps up a bit to smoothly at the end, but the quality of the acting, directing and writing should charm you. I recommend this film highly.
Have you found a film on streaming that you’d like us to look at? Leave it in the comments and it might appear in a future installment of this feature.
