The best ever film depiction of metal subculture

Rating: 10/10 (15 January 2002)

Rock Star is a comedy and a love story. But it's also a devastatingly accurate depiction of the old-school trad metal subculture, and a very funny one (let's face it trad metal subculture is a bit sad :-)
Apart from the (Hollywood compulsory) love scenes and the ending (very Hollywood)...don't worry, these only take up about 10 minutes of the total running time....the entire film is one long series of jokes and in-jokes about the scene. The film almost reads like a series of separate sketches...a sketch depicting life in a struggling metal band, a sketch depicting backstage life as a rock star, a sketch depicting the process of album making and so on. All are excellent. At least as good as Spinal Tap, maybe better.
Just one possible niggle; I loved this film, but I live for trad metal. I would say that at least half the jokes, especially the visual in-jokes, would be meaningless to anyone not steeped in old school metal and who has never played in an old school metal band. But that still leaves an awful lot of humour to enjoy...