Review of Metallica: Through the Never (2013) by Manny C — 29 Sep 2013

Metallica lovers will of course thrill to the new concert film Through The Never, now showing in 3-D and IMAX. But will anyone else? I say yes, since Through The Never is a new rock classic.

You don't really need to know anything about singer/guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammet and bassist Robert Trujillo, but if you want to you could check out their 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster, their deep chronicle of band therapy. Through The Never, shot with multiple cameras and eye-popping stage sets by Hungarian filmmaker Nimrod Antal (Kontroll) over five nights in Vancouver and Edmonton, Canada during last year's World Magnetic Tour, needs no explanation. It's that good.

What does merit some explaining is the short film that accompanies it starring Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) as Trip, a roadie tasked with collecting a mysterious bag as the concert goes on. It's a surreal journey that sees him enter a world of zombie restlessness, cop cars exploding and even a masked horseman, all within a narrative thread that doesn't always hold. It's a bit distracting but no less hypnotic. You could do worse.