*Obligatory Spoiler warning, proceed with caution*

The glam queen has finally recovered from the party hosted a few weeks back and my engines are roaring to write a new blog. One of my favourite bands of all time , and one of my invites to MA’s 3rd birthday, Mötley Crüe, released their biopic, The Dirt, on the 22nd of March on Netflix. This is an adaptation of the infamous book of the same name. If the rock press hasn’t been annoying you already with several news articles about this film, well sorry to plague you even more with my review about it.

The Dirt | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix

With Mötley being one of many bands that introduced me to the world of metal, I had very high expectations going into this film. I love rockumentaries and biopics, and Bohemian Rhapsody was probably my favourite film of 2018. I was excited to see how the book would be brought to life and seeing how the actors cast as the band and other people around them would portray them. Let’s get On with The Show and see how this film enticed my Wild Side.

Before I speak about the film itself, let’s see how the cast matched up to the foursome.

Douglas Booth, who plays band leader/bassist Nikki Sixx, portrayed him quite well. He looked the part and grasped the handsomeness of a young Nikki (the fangirl in me approves). He seemed to have the same kind of air about him that Nikki has and during his low point with the heroin abuse, my heart began to break as I felt he depicted this part really well. He could have been a bit edgier and less clean-cut to resemble Nikki more but overall, a good performance from Booth.

Daniel Webber was cast as our blond-haired frontman/vocalist Vince Neil. In my opinion, his strongest points were during the more emotional scenes (Razzle’s death, Skylar’s death). I don’t feel he gave a convincing musical performance - he could have been a bit more charismatic as a frontman though his Lead Singer Syndrome and countless sex scenes showed Vince’s spirit.

Colson Baker (Machine Gun Kelly) really shone as our wild drummer Tommy Lee. He got his mannerisms to a tee and I really enjoyed seeing him play Tommy. I felt out of the four, he was the best at capturing the energy of the band members. Tommy has a fast, youthful, energetic spirit and this was conveyed is a magnificent way by Baker. Seeing his anger building up during the scenes with his love interests Roxie and Heather Locklear foreshadowed the Pamela case that happened in the late 90s/early 2000s but this was not covered. I liked how they contrasted his high and low points and I felt like Tommy had cloned himself to make this film by watching Baker.

Iwan Rheon was one of two cast members I knew him by name (MGK is the second) beforehand, I am a fan of the TV show Misfits and when he was announced to play our mysterious guitarist Mick Mars, I became intrigued in how he would represent him. I feel like he was not given enough time to shine, but when he did speak, he had the same great sense of humour that I’ve seen Mick have in interviews. That being said, he seemed a bit too energetic for Mick at times as Mick gives off a I-Don’t-Give-A-Fuck vibe, and while this happened on occasions, I expected Iwan to be a bit more reserved. I would have liked to have seen more character development with Mick though as he was just deemed the old man with a disease a lot of the time.

OK, what ignited your Live Wire?

This film very much appealed to the fangirl in me. I understood all the little references to interviews and other clips I had seen from the band’s archive. Seeing the film progress through the different eras of Crüe brought back memories of me getting the book and reading about these wild people, scarring me and making me lose my innocent mind. Seeing a raw Mötley before my eyes really resonated with me as I wish I was born during that time to experience it first-hand. My emotions were all over the place as I knew key points in their history were coming up and I felt for all my bois <3.

I congratulate the producers in daring to show their crazy lives through an uncensored lens. The tone balanced the dirty and clean well but maybe it could have been a bit darker in some places. I laughed so hard at the infamous Bullwinkle scene which opens the book (if you know, you know :wink: ) so I knew I was in for a wild ride. The songs they chose to depict the eras were carefully done, for example, the ‘On with The Show’ scene showed Nikki’s name change and the song ‘Too Young to Fall In Love’ played before the death of late Hanoi Rocks drummer, Razzle. I liked how they broke the fourth wall as it reminded me of the Jersey Boys biopic on The Four Seasons. It made it feel comedic and light-hearted when it needed to be-the day in a life of Tommy Lee part shows this well, and it also drew us in to the dark minds of band members as they opened up about their demons.

There were some great cameos in this film, for example, when the boys were on tour with Ozzy Osbourne and the infamous ant-snorting saga, David Lee Roth at one of their parties and a passed-out Slash on the sofa in the scene of Nikki’s second death. This encompassed the 80s rock scene really well and it was nice seeing them hang out with other musicians. My heart wrenched at the darker parts of the film. Being a massive fan of The Heroin Diaries, the scenes with Nikki’s struggle with heroin agonised my heart as pages from the book flashed before my eyes while watching the film and seeing a real-life depiction of Nikki’s psychosis tore me. Vince’s conflict with Razzle’s and Skylar’s death had the same affect on me, making me connect with him even more.

The film, overall, was paced well and balanced the highs and lows accordingly. I felt that the time jump between the reunion with Vince and the final tour was much too spaced out and would leave casual viewers wondering what happened in those 20 years. The credits redeemed this however and warmed my heart. It closed showing footage of the final tour, behind the scenes shenanigans and archive footage from the 80s and scored by ‘Kickstart My Heart’. A solid close to the end of the film.

What made you Primal Scream?

Being the Crüehead that I am, I couldn’t help but be critical with how some things were adapted. I know that this is a film, not a documentary but it fell in the same trap that Bohemian Rhapsody did. They messed around with the timeline to fit in more key moments, but this caused issues with my enjoyment at some parts. For example, Sharise getting pregnant with Skylar happened much later on and not during the Theatre of Pain era and Skylar was younger than she was in the film when she died. The band get their masters back later too as this happens after Vince comes back during the Generation Swine era. Key parts of the book were also cut out such as Tommy and Pamela’s relationship/Tommy’s jail sentence and the New Tattoo era with Randy Costello/Samantha Maloney. I understand taking out the Tommy scenario as this was televised enough back in the day, but isolating Randy’s contribution seemed odd and could have filled the gap between Vince coming back and the final tour.

Other parts that could have been a bit more flourished are the band’s life pre-Mötley. We saw an eye into Nikki’s dysfunctional start and Tommy’s family unit, but Vince and Mick did not get their time. Mick mentions he is paying child support but that’s about it for pre-Mötley life for him. If they were to expand on Nikki’s part, then they could have included his grandparents as they were integral to his childhood upbringing-it jumps straight away to Hollywood, but he had a life in Idaho too. Then again, they could just make a Heroin Diaries film with flashbacks to his childhood as this happens in the book. Another reason why I bring this up as they didn’t dwell much on the Girls Girls Girls era and as they were going through the heroin scenes, I felt that there was a lot more to this era that was not portrayed. Luckily, we get to experience this microcosm in the Heroin Diaries musical.

The jump between ‘Too Fast for Love’ and ‘Shout at the Devil’ seemed a bit odd too as they went from nobodies to selling out the LA Forum. There was no talk of the re-release of TFFL on Elektra Records when they got signed, nor the US Festival gig in 1983 which was symbolic in their career that happened during this jump. The Corabi parts were just brushed over too and could have been a bit longer (though kudos to Anthony Vincent from Ten Second Songs for looking the most like his character). Vince had a whole solo career that wasn’t spoken about, they could have shown a contrast in how the careers of Vince and Corabi/Crue was going on too. With all of the gaps missing, I feel they could have had 2 films which explored the first 5 albums up until Vince’s departure and then everything else up until the final tour or 4 intertwining films that showed the different perspectives of each band member during each era, but that’s asking for too much.

That being said, I enjoyed seeing the relics of the sunset strip such as the Rainbow, Troubadour and Whiskey during the early years and other key bands in the glam era like Dokken and Quiet Riot and also liked the subtle hint to the Grunge Revolution when Motley were recording the Corabi/Crue album showing the music de jour of the early 90s. The attention paid during these parts of the film was clever and thoughtful. The background characters, in some parts, could have been a bit more 80s to add the mise-en-scene as I felt some people looked too modern for the time. There could have been more exposure to the Glam and Thrash battle and maybe had the fight with Lars and James from Metallica in it. This would have added more about the culture of the 80s and synced better with the opening statements about the decade.

So, did this film Take You To the Top?

It certainly did! I’m happy the film has been finally made after hearing about it for so long. The nostalgic feeling that I get when I watch this film is second to none. I remember first hearing ‘Looks that Kill’ on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories on the station V-Rock when I was about 10 years old and I think about my 13-year-old self, buying ‘Red White and Crüe’ after school and listening to the album when I got home, admiring the hard 80s sound and the crazy lyrics. It taught me a lot about what rock music was and who these 4 characters are. To see the book being brought to life in all its excess and unruling nature struck every nerve in my body.

I preferred it the second time around, which I watched while writing notes for this blog. The end caught me off guard on the first viewing but made me cry at the end the second time. Home Sweet Home was the closing song on the final tour and also the song they finished the film off before the credits rolled. This was a nice touch. I didn’t forget that I was watching a movie like I did with BoRhap but I liked how the book was brought to reality. Gaps and factual holes aside, the film was very entertaining and it definitely Kickstart my Heart.

I thank the Saints of Los Angeles, my beloved boys in Mötley Crüe, for making me feel so happy this weekend and making me fall in love with them all over again! I’ll be Goin’ Out Swingin’ now, but I’ll see you guys in the next one :blush: