This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

some-kind-of-monster

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

Those of you that appreciate a great documentary will appreciate this one. I don’t even like Metallica very much, and I think this film is fantastic. Back in the early 2000s, VH1 sent in a film crew to make a reality show about the band making their St. Anger album. Unfortunately for VH1’s plans, the band was so dysfunctional during this period that they nearly broke up. The record company finally sent in a psychiatrist that specializes in sports teams in an effort to keep the band together. What the film crew wound up capturing is 1,600 hours of footage about aging rockers learning how to cope with one another after all these years. VH1 dropped the plans for a series, but in a moment of wisdom, Metallica themselves paid the film crew to finish the shoot and eventually edit the footage to a single film. The result is a dense, 140 minute film about fame, aging, collaboration, new media, and the nature of art.

StrictlyBallroom

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Strictly Ballroom

Do we all remember Baz Luhrmann? Like a meteor he sparkled across the sky and now seems to have faded. But my goodness, the sparkles! Especially in this, his debut film. The style is campy, the plot is predictable…but the emotion still rings true. Scott Hastings should be a ballroom champion, but he finds himself stifled by the staid structure of traditional ballroom. When he dares to dance his own steps, he gets firmly stepped on by the dancing community. But teaming up with misfit Fran, Scott pursues his own course. You know exactly what’s going to happen, but I challenge you to resist the charms of this technicolor fever-dream.

1 comment

  1. YAY STRICTLY BALLROOM!

    I’m in the midst of compiling a blogpost of films I will watch whenever they are on, no matter how often I’ve seen them before, or how far through the film has already played. This film is very firmly on that list.

    That list also needs a snappier title.

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