Film

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

Name: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Genre: Documentary, Music
Released: 2004
Cast: James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, Jason Newsted

Biopic

A trainwreck you can't look away from, except the trainwreck is emotional and the wreckage is one of metal's biggest bands. Metallica hire a $40,000-a-month therapist to save themselves from themselves, and the cameras catch every excruciating, hilarious, oddly moving minute. It's a documentary about middle-aged men learning to say how they feel, disguised as a rock doc.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you find the making of a record more absorbing than the record itself, and you like watching famous men fumble for honest words.

Skip it if you want the music front and centre, since much of the runtime is meetings, bickering and studio sessions rather than songs performed on stage.

What it asks of you: It runs well over two hours and moves at the pace of real life, so long stretches of waiting, silence and talking in circles are part of the deal.

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

If you liked this

Anvil! The Story of Anvil2008

The spiritual sibling of this film — a band with none of Metallica's success but all of the same dysfunction, ego, and stubborn love for each other. Funnier, sadder, somehow more universal.

But You've never heard of Anvil and might assume that means it's not worth ninety minutes. It is.

Dig!2004

Seven years of footage covering the toxic rivalry-friendship between The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Same voyeuristic access to bands self-destructing, different genre, even more chaos.

But Anton Newcombe is a genuinely difficult person to spend two hours with, even on screen.

The Last Waltz1978

Scorsese films The Band's farewell concert and turns it into the gold standard of music documentary craft. Gorgeous, elegiac, a masterclass in how to shoot musicians as people.

But It's a concert film first — if you want more therapy-couch drama and less music, this leans the other way.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

This Is Spinal Tap1984

Spinal Tap satirized exactly this genre of self-serious band documentary before it fully existed; watching the real thing afterward is uncanny, because Metallica occasionally out-Tap Tap.

The mockumentary that invented the language Some Kind of Monster unknowingly speaks — pompous rockers, bruised egos, bassists nobody remembers. Watching it right after feels like a punchline landing twenty years late.

But It's a comedy, and a fictional one — if you want more real emotional wreckage, this won't scratch that itch.

Shut Up and Play the Hits2012

James Murphy dismantles LCD Soundsystem at the peak of its powers, and the film follows him through the hangover of quitting while you're ahead. A different kind of band reckoning.

But Quieter and more melancholic than Some Kind of Monster — no shouting, just a slow, thoughtful comedown.

Amy2015

Asif Kapadia builds a devastating portrait entirely from archive footage, no talking heads, watching a genius get consumed in real time. The unfiltered access here is even more intimate.

But There's no redemption arc. It's a tragedy, and it earns every bit of that word.

Cobain: Montage of Heck2015

Home movies, animation, and unreleased audio build an unusually close portrait of a rock star's inner life — the kind of access Some Kind of Monster gave us, turned up to eleven.

But Heavier and more clinical in its sadness; this isn't a film you watch for catharsis.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston2006

A stranger, gentler music documentary about mental illness and outsider art, following a songwriter whose battles are less about ego and more about survival.

But Far less rock-and-roll swagger, more quietly heartbreaking than cathartic.

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band2020

A more conventional talking-heads doc, but the story underneath — brotherhood curdling into resentment — rhymes closely with what happens inside Metallica.

But Told entirely from Robertson's point of view, so it's one-sided in a way Some Kind of Monster refuses to be.

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band poster

Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll1987

Chuck Berry rehearsing for his 60th birthday concert while driving Keith Richards to the edge of sanity — an earlier, funnier study in musician ego and control.

But Dated and scrappy by today's documentary standards, more historical curiosity than gripping cinema.

Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll poster

Let It Be1970

Same genre origin point: a camera crew embedded with a band as it falls apart mid-album, capturing tension nobody thought to hide.

The Beatles, filmed disintegrating in real time while trying to record an album, decades before reality TV made this kind of raw access normal. The template for every band-in-crisis doc since.

But Slower and more oblique — nobody hires a therapist, they just quietly stop looking at each other.

In Treatment2008

Strip away the band and the leather pants, and Some Kind of Monster is essentially a therapy drama — this is that same premise, fictionalized, quieter, and just as unflinching.

A scripted drama built entirely from therapy sessions — the same intimate, uncomfortable structure of watching people slowly say true things to a professional, minus the guitars and gold records.

But No music, no fame, no spectacle — just two people talking in a room, which is either riveting or a hard sell.