Film

The Dirt

Name: The Dirt
Genre: Drama, Music, Comedy
Released: 2019
Cast: mgk, Douglas Booth, Daniel Webber, Iwan Rheon, Pete Davidson

Biopic

The Dirt is a gleefully unhinged biography of Mötley Crüe, tracing their wild ascent from LA's club scene to arena rock superstardom. It's a film that leans into excess—sex, drugs, partying, destruction—with an almost documentary frankness. This is for anyone who loves music history told with zero moralizing, who finds chaos entertaining, and who won't mind that the characters are often genuinely terrible people.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy rowdy band-life stories told with a cheeky, unapologetic grin, where the chaos of backstage debauchery is the point and the friendships are messy but loyal.

Skip it if the tone is loose and crude, with drug and sex excess played for laughs; if sleaze and sniggering wear thin, the constant cheek will grate.

What it asks of you: It runs just under two hours and moves at a brisk, episodic clip, jumping between tours, tabloid scrapes and studio fights, so it wants you alert rather than patient.

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

If you liked this

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent2022

Another film about a troubled rock-adjacent ego trying to stay relevant, told with self-aware humor and genuine affection for its subject. Nicolas Cage is spectacular.

But It's a bit self-congratulatory about its own cleverness, and the middle sags if you're not already charmed by the premise.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent poster

Bohemian Rhapsody2018

The definitive template for the rock biopic: enormous talent, internal conflict, the pressure of fame, and a band held together despite everything. Rami Malek's performance is magnetic.

But It's reverent toward its subject in ways The Dirt isn't, and considerably more tasteful about the harder stuff.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood2019

Another 2019 film soaked in the excess and chaos of 1970s-80s LA, with perfect period detail and a cast doing their best work. Tarantino's eye for the era feels lived-in.

But It's much longer, much slower, and interested in storytelling over music history. Some find it self-indulgent.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Dirt

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Sid and Nancy1986

Both are band origin stories where the music matters less than the mythology, and both refuse to sanitize the people involved. The difference is Mötley Crüe got to survive and have a reunion tour.

The Sex Pistols' doomed bassist and his girlfriend, told as a love story wrapped in heroin and violence. It's the counterpoint to The Dirt—same excess, same destruction, but no redemption arc. Utterly committed filmmaking.

But It's genuinely bleak and won't let you off the hook emotionally. Also, the relationship depicted is toxic in ways the film doesn't apologize for.

Almost Famous2000

A genuine love letter to rock music and the people who chase it, following a kid embedded with a touring band. Warm, funny, and surprisingly moving about the cost of fame.

But It's earnest in a way The Dirt deliberately isn't. Sentimentality isn't everyone's speed.

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka1988

A comedy that parodies and celebrates blaxploitation with affection and total fearlessness. If you like The Dirt's irreverent tone, this does the same thing with a different genre.

But The humor is very broad and very 1988. Some jokes land harder than others, and the plot is deliberately thin.

Roadies2016

A serialized drama about the people who actually build and travel with rock tours. It captures the particular camaraderie and wreckage of that world better than most music films.

But It got canceled after one season. Also slower paced and more interested in human damage than spectacle.

This Is the End2013

A comedy that features real musicians and comedians playing exaggerated versions of themselves during an apocalypse. Same DNA as The Dirt—ego, chaos, surprising tenderness underneath.

But The humor gets increasingly surreal and absurd. If you prefer grounded comedy, this will lose you.

Vinyl2016

A prestige HBO drama about the record industry in the 1970s, with Mick Jagger as a producer and Martin Scorsese behind the camera. The money and production design are enormous.

But It's often more interested in looking cool than making sense, and it was canceled after one season on a cliffhanger.

Lords of Chaos2018

Both follow a specific band's ascent through the lens of their worst impulses. But where The Dirt treats chaos as comedic, this treats it as tragedy. Same blueprint, opposite tone.

A Norwegian black metal origin story with the same energy as The Dirt—talented young men, criminal acts, arson, murder, and a total inability to handle success. Rory Culkin is phenomenal and utterly unhinged.

But It's considerably darker and more violent than The Dirt, with real consequences. Some will find it gratuitously grim.

24 Hour Party People2002

Both are films about a specific music scene's birth and mythology. The Dirt is high-energy rock fantasy; this is a rambling, introspective meditation that moves sideways through time. Different energy entirely, but identical DNA.

A Manchester music scene film about Factory Records and the Haçienda club, told in the style of a deranged comic book. Steve Coogan breaks the fourth wall constantly, and it's a film about failure, joy, and going broke together.

But It's avant-garde in structure and assumes you either know the scene or don't care. Also substantially less glamorous than The Dirt—less sex and drugs, more debt and eccentricity.