Synopsis
After bassist Jason Newsted quits the band in 2001, heavy metal superstars Metallica realize that they need an intervention. In this revealing documentary, filmmakers follow the three rock stars as they hire a group therapist and grapple with 20 years of repressed anger and aggression. Between searching for a replacement bass player, creating a new album and confronting their personal demons, the band learns to open up in ways they never thought possible.
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Cast
- James HetfieldSelf
- Lars UlrichSelf
- Kirk HammettSelf
- Robert TrujilloSelf
- Jason NewstedSelf
- Dave MustaineSelf
- Bob RockSelf
- Phil TowleSelf
Recommendations
- 100
Entertainment Weekly
One of the most revelatory rock portraits ever made. - 90
The A.V. Club
It's a measure of the film's brilliance that it strips away the trappings of superstardom and allows audiences to see these men as flawed human beings first, musicians second, and rock gods a distant third. - 90
The New York Times
You realize you are witnessing a psychodrama of novelistic intricacy and epic scope. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
These are rich, aging men in a young man's game, and the discrepancy between image and reality, captured by the filmmakers, makes for engrossing material. - 80
Time
What's most captivating about Monster is that the camera never looks away and Metallica never hides. - 80
Variety
Pic itself is a long haul, at nearly 2½ hours; yet one needn't be a fan of Metallica or heavy metal to be engrossed throughout. - 80
Film Threat
The result will stand as one of the most intense, in-depth, warts-and-all rockumentaries ever made. - 50
Christian Science Monitor
The quartet appears to be mightily lacking in the brains and judgment departments, but at least it tries to do something about its failings, employing a traveling psychotherapist whose interventions and ruminations provide some of the film's most unwittingly amusing moments.
