Film

It's So Easy and Other Lies

Name: It's So Easy and Other Lies
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2016
Cast: Duff McKagan, Slash, Nikki Sixx

Biopic

A rollicking memoir in motion, following Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan from Seattle nobody to rock royalty to cautious adult. Equal parts confessional and celebration, with peers like Slash vouching for the wild years. It's a document of addiction, redemption, and what happens when you survive your own legend.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a rock life story built from one man's own recollections, candid about the mess and wry about surviving it, with fellow rock veterans chiming in.

Skip it if you come for albums, tour logistics and studio detail; this is a personal portrait, so the story leans on mood and memory and can feel loose at its edges.

What it asks of you: Roughly an hour and a half of seated listening, with no hurry: it moves through memory rather than sprinting, and it rewards patience more than attention to every name.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Dirt2019

Mötley Crüe's debauchery gets the anarchic biopic treatment. If you love Duff's story, you'll recognize the same arc—excess, brotherhood, near-death experiences, and the wreckage left behind.

But Heavy on spectacle and thin on consequence. The film sometimes treats destruction as entertainment rather than tragedy.

Fast N' Loud2012

A docuseries that contextualizes the world McKagan moved through. Interviews with peers, cultural analysis, and footage that lets you see the whole ecosystem he was part of reshaping.

But Broad and sometimes obvious. It covers a lot of ground without going very deep into any particular story.

Senna2010

Another sports/music documentary about obsession, talent, and the cost of reaching the top. Uses interviews and archival material to build intimacy with someone at the absolute peak of their field.

But The editing can feel manipulative. It's designed to move you emotionally whether or not you care about Formula One.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from It's So Easy and Other Lies

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Metalhead2013

Where Duff's film is about surviving excess, this asks what happens when metal fandom is the only thing keeping someone alive. Same devotion, opposite stakes.

An Icelandic film about a teenage girl's life after devastating loss, told almost entirely through her obsession with metal music. It treats rock culture not as lifestyle but as actual grief medicine—how sound saves you when words fail.

But The grief is real and unresolved. It's not cathartic in the way recovery stories usually are. Some will find it too bleak.

The Last Dance2020

Michael Jordan's career and inner life filtered through his own voice and interpretation. It's a similar exercise in legend examining themselves, with the same anxiety about legacy and aging.

But Some episodes slip into hagiography. It's not always clear whose version of events we're meant to believe.

Love & Mercy2015

Brian Wilson's story told via two actors at different ages, showing both the genius and the vulnerability. Another portrait of an artist battling his own mind while making something immortal.

But Somewhat fragmented, jumping between eras in ways that sometimes interrupt momentum rather than deepen it.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil2008

A Canadian metal band's decades-long struggle for recognition. Funny, heartbreaking, and unapologetically about the people nobody famous remembers. You'll see Duff's world from below.

But Brutal in places. Not everyone's comfortable watching people fail so visibly and persistently.

Cobain: Montage of Heck2015

An intimate, animated deep dive into Nirvana's figurehead. Seattle grunge connection, similar era, similar questions about what fame costs the people who become it.

But Some viewers find the animation choices more distracting than illuminating. The portrait is unflinching in ways some find uncomfortable.

Searching for Sugar Man2012

A mystery about a forgotten musician and his unexpected second life. If you're moved by Duff's redemption arc, you'll appreciate a very different version of coming back.

But The pacing can feel slow. It's more meditation than adrenaline, and the emotional payoff requires patience.

High Fidelity2020

Both are investigations into whether the person you were—the legend, the addiction, the era—has to define the person you've become.

Zoë Kravitz in a loose, musical adaptation about obsession with the past and why we can't let go of who we were. It's not a rock film, but it's fundamentally about the same addiction to memory that McKagan wrestles with.

But Scattered structure. The show sometimes mistakes nostalgia-wallowing for character development, and that gets repetitive.

Another Round2020

Duff's film celebrates survival. This one asks what you're surviving from and what you're willing to lose. Same question, inverted.

A Danish film about four men testing whether a constant low level of alcohol improves life. It's darkly funny until it isn't. A philosophical examination of escapism that lands harder than any sermon about sobriety.

But The tonal shift from comedy to consequence is jarring. Some viewers will feel ambushed by the turn it takes.