I have read the comment of my fellow viewer and apparent Heavy Metal Connisseur, who says this film falls short of completely covering the Heavy Metal scene at the time.
But I really don't think that that's what Spheeris was trying to do. This film is so much more. Like any truly great documentary, it somehow manages to capture life, raw and unfiltered.
The characters are funny, loveable, sad, pitiful, admirable, inspiring, bewildering, all at the same time. A very odd, strangely fascinating and mystifying mix of moods and emotions and realness that is stranger than fiction.
Like Paul Thomas Anderson and other great filmmakers, Spheeris has this talent of having compassion for her subjects, rather than judging them in some way. It is what it is. She gets out of the way and lets an utterly fascinating and at times "un-real" segment of life tell its own story. A timeless piece of rock documentary.
But I really don't think that that's what Spheeris was trying to do. This film is so much more. Like any truly great documentary, it somehow manages to capture life, raw and unfiltered.
The characters are funny, loveable, sad, pitiful, admirable, inspiring, bewildering, all at the same time. A very odd, strangely fascinating and mystifying mix of moods and emotions and realness that is stranger than fiction.
Like Paul Thomas Anderson and other great filmmakers, Spheeris has this talent of having compassion for her subjects, rather than judging them in some way. It is what it is. She gets out of the way and lets an utterly fascinating and at times "un-real" segment of life tell its own story. A timeless piece of rock documentary.