Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

In 2001 the band starts a new album and the bass player leaves. The singer walks out of the studio for alcohol treatment and does not come back for months. The rest sit in a room arguing about what to do. The management company brings in a therapist. The cameras stay in that room for two years. The subject is not music but four men in their forties not knowing what to say to one another. Most of the arguments are not about songs; they are about who decides, who takes the work seriously and who has not listened to whom for years. The form is raw and deliberately embarrassing. The camera protects nobody; the fights, the silences and the slogans the therapist writes on a board are all left in. The most cited element is the therapist, as the process drags on, beginning to see himself as a member of the band, so that saying goodbye to him becomes its own problem. It was made by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, previously known for true crime documentaries. The intention at the start was to record the making of an album; what emerged was the record of a collapse. James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett are in front of the camera. Who it is for: viewers interested in music documentary and the dynamics inside a band. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a concert; there is almost no performance and the music is secondary.