Netflix’s ‘The Dirt’ is unwatchable garbage, glorifying awful people behaving like horrible people
Maybe it was Bohemian Rhapsody, or the upcoming Elton John biopic, Rocketman, which made Netflix think that a Motley Crue film was going to be a good idea. Director Jeff Tremaine (Jackass) delivered a horrible and repulsive film, made only to glorify the “sex, drugs and rock n’ roll” nonsense as the 80’s rockers sole existence.
After a vulgar opening scene, full of profanity, sex, more profanity, nudity, oral sex, The Dirt goes back to 1973 when Frank Carlton Feranna Jr. fakes child abuse to get his mother arrested, a fast forward to 1978 Los Angeles where Frank officially becomes Nikki Sixx and the band is formed.
The film stars Douglas Booth, Colson Baker, Daniel Webber and Iwan Rheon as the Crue, portraying the band as bunch of crude morons without a single redeeming characteristic. Pete Davidson plays Tom Zutaut, the Elektra Records executive who signs them to a five record deal. David Lee Roth (Christian Gehring) makes an appearance snorting coke, Ozzy Osbourne (Tony Cavalero) snorts some ants and licks up his own urine and the band is just repulsive.
The car accident which left Razzle dead and Vince in jail go by fast as the lead singer gets addicted to heroin,Tommy meets Heather Locklear (Rebekah Graf) before rebounding with Dr. Feelgood. Sadly, these dramatic moments, which should add interesting conflict, become just passing scenes of human debris.
Based on the book The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Neil Strauss, Tremaine’s film makes all of the wrong decisions about what makes the cut for the biopic.
Whether you like Motley Crue or not, The Dirt will remove anything you liked about them. They are portrayed as awful people, behaving in awful ways on their way to becoming millionaire rockers, doing drugs and sleeping with any woman that crossed their path. It’s just lazy, cheap and poorly made. To make matters worse, it’s not the actors’ fault.
The Dirt earns 1 star out of 5 stars.
