The Dirt - Review

With the huge success of Bohemian Rhapsody and the upcoming Rocketman film, here we have yet another biopic about a successful group of rock icons, Motley Cure. However, unlike the films I listed above, this movie is a straight-to-Netflix story. Does that mean that it wains in quality? Not necessarily because The Dirt is a good time.

It's difficult to rate biopics because similar to documentaries, the subject matter being presented can drastically alter your opinion on the movie. For me, I enjoyed this movie quite a bit because growing up, I was a Motley Crue fan and was totally into all those bands from the-70's and 80's. However, I will say that this movie isn't perfect and I can still see some drawbacks. So for this movie, I'm going to tackle it with a simple approach. Listing off what worked and what didn't and why.

First of all, this movie really nails the characters of the band. Now,/ I am not familiar with how well these actors portrayed their real-life counterparts, but as far as going into this movie as if it were fiction, all of the band members had their own distinct voice and style. Tommy Lee as the wide-eyed optimistic lover, Nikki Six as the troubled kid with the severe drug addiction, Mick Mars as the anti-social oldie and Vince Neill as the smooth-voiced ladies man. All of them have great chemistry with each other. It's also fun to hear Motley Crue's music on the big... (actually depending on how big your screen is) screen as it's balls to the wall rock and roll.

However, this is where the issues arise. The film isn't necessarily a story about how four guys created a band that rose to superstardom and became one of the most successful rock bands of the 1980s and how their music influenced the world, nor is it a story about personal growth. Sure, both of those things are briefly in there, but this feels like a mish-mash of events from Motley Crue's rise to fame with no clear direction or tone. It's like all the band members were sitting around a table all stoned out of their minds and each of them took turns saying "Yo dude! Remember when we checked into that hotel in Kansas City and Tommy threw the TV out the window?" To which all of them laugh and agree as one of them takes out a notepad and writes down the crazy memory. Once a notepad was full of insane moments, the screenwriters simply put them all in chronological order.

This movie doesn't feel like it has a beginning, middle, and end, it feels like a sketchbook of events ranging from insane drug-induced parties, band members calling off friendships, to overnight rock and roll success, to rehab visits, to old family members coming on tour, it all just feels like a mish-mash of events.

So as a flowing narrative, while the scenes are in chronological order, the pacing feels choppy due to severe contrasting emotional tones. So much so that the movie's ending comes out of nowhere without any climax or "final show" or anything memorable.

However, since I am a fan of the band and did enjoy the scenes individually, I was entertained and think of the pacing and story structure more as a missed opportunity rather than a serious flaw. For a Netflix movie about one of my favorite rock bands, I enjoyed myself. If I saw this on the big screen, I may think differently.