Metal Lords Parent Guide

Being good isn’t enough: Hunter (Adrian Greensmith) wants to be a god in the world of heavy metal rock. The teen guitar player begins his quest for musical glory by persuading his compliant best friend, Kevin (Jaeden Martell), to be part of a band, which he names “Skullf*cker”. Swiping his father’s credit card, Hunter heads off to the music store, to emerge thousands of dollars later with an impressive drum kit for his friend, and a list of music for Kevin to learn. There’s only one problem: they need a bass player and no satisfactory candidate has appeared.

Kevin thinks he’s found a solution to their problem. Fellow marching band musician Emily (Isis Hainsworth) is a gifted cellist and she and Kevin have been practicing metal standards together. Hunter is unconvinced of Emily’s suitability for Skullf*cker: he’s certain that a classical cellist doesn’t have enough metal in her soul to be part of their band. With the school’s Battle of the Bands coming up in a matter of weeks, finding a bass player is becoming a critical problem – but not nearly as serious as the consequences of Hunter’s increasingly poor behavior.

Metal Lords is an intensely sympathetic film, illuminating the agonizing challenges of adolescence. It’s really Kevin’s story and the narrative follows him as he falls in love with Emily and tries to reset his friendship with Hunter on a more equal basis. Kevin learns a lot about friendship, love, loyalty, and self-respect in this film - and those are all critical lessons for teen audiences. Also beneficial is the script’s refusal to pigeonhole its characters: the protagonists make bad decisions from time to time, and even some of the “jerks” get a chance to learn and grow. Characters mature through the film, recognizing their own errors and learning to move past those of others.

Unfortunately, these valuable messages are submerged in a tidal wave of profanity. There are 80 sexual expletives in the film (several of them spoken in the band’s name and others heard in song lyrics) as well as sexual hand gestures. Crude anatomical terms – for a comprehensive range of male and female sexual anatomy – also show up frequently in the script. It can be argued that this is simply an accurate representation of how teens speak, which might be true. However, that feels like a weak excuse for a profanity-laden script. Movies are entirely aspirational: almost everyone in a film is thinner, better-looking, and better-dressed than people in real life. Their homes are larger, better decorated, and more lushly landscaped and their cars are newer and cleaner. If everything in a movie looks better than it does in real life, shouldn’t it sound better too?

The profanity isn’t the movie’s only problem – there are frequent scenes of teen drinking and drug use and many instances where sex is a topic of conversation. There is also an implied sexual relationship between two teenagers.

The negative content is particularly unfortunate here because the storyline has so much going for it. The characters are all painfully vulnerable: Hunter uses his obsession with heavy metal as a way to blot out the pain of his fractured family and to give himself a sense of meaning, Kevin tries to maintain his friendship with Hunter while still being true to himself, and Emily copes with the challenges of mental illness. They all flounder and fall and get back up and try again. They are real and sad and hopeful and funny and very, very human. It’s unfortunate that the negative content wrapped around this heartfelt tale will keep it from being seen by a broader audience. It deserves better.