Review: Netflix's 'The Dirt'

Based on the book of the same title, The Dirt dives into the lives, both professionally and personally, of the infamous rock band, Motley Crue. This Netflix film directed by Jeff Tremaine, shows what life on the road was like for the band that got famous for all of the wrong reasons.

Release Date: March 22, 2019

Main Cast:

• Colson Baker (Machine Gun Kelly) as Tommy Lee
• Douglas Booth as Nikki Sixx
• Daniel Webber as Vince Neil
• Iwan Rheon as Mick Mars

[SPOILER ALERT]

The Dirt begins with the inception of the band in the early 80s. Overall, it follows through with their story chronologically and does well to show a band that has been overshadowed by their peers both before and after their beginning. As the name of the film implies, this is certainly not a child friendly film. Not a thing was hidden in this story, no matter how crude, immoral and illegal. As far as biopics go, Jeff Tremaine, did a good job at keeping the story fresh, interesting and even quite funny at parts. I found myself googling each of the members to check further into some of the details of the film; especially the drama surrounding every part of Tommy Lee's life.

One of the more refreshing aspects of the film is that they show more into the personal lives of the band as they make their rise to fame. With these parts comes a deeper connection to the characters, which resulted in a great increase in quality and interest throughout the remainder of the film. Another impressive factor in my opinion of the film was not only the quality of the acting, but the similarity in physical appearance to the real members of Motley Crue. Machine Gun Kelly impressed me with the job he did portraying Tommy Lee, so much that I did not even release he was the actor until about a third of the way through the film. MGK also bears quite a striking resemblance to Tommy Lee in the 80s.

And here comes the bad news. Not enough to the point where it would damage the film beyond repair, but every film has its issues. My biggest problems exist because there were many parts of this film that were exactly what you would expect. The drugs, booze and misconduct of the band is all too similar to some of the other bands of the period. Even though a lot of this is what got Motley Crue famous, it would have been nice to see a bit more into the backgrounds of the members, other than just Nikki Sixx. The film also did seem to drag at parts which led to a longer-than-necessary run time of 1:48. There were many scenes that certainly could have been left behind. I loved the break of the fourth wall at points, but it got to be a little over the top after the first couple breaks. Not too much bad news though, all of the cons were definitely well outweighed by the pros.

Overall, I enjoyed the film as a whole and I think that it is definitely worth a watch. I believe that The Dirt will solidify Motley Crue's legacy as one of the great rock bands of the '80's. Creating heightened interest in both the history of the band and each of its members, the film will do a lot for the band commercially and publicly in the future.

Pros:

• Strong Casting
• High Production Value
• Interesting Topic
• Costumes/Makeup

Cons:

• Length of film
• Cliches

Total Score: 7.6/10

Rewatchability: Average

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